Toronto, Canada, 2006. A few months after the worst year of the Iraq war. Gabriel Navarro splits his time between his job slinging ink at the Atlantis Ink tattoo parlor, and working on his master’s degree in fine art. Gabe is twenty-two, sure of his beliefs and his artistic integrity, and na?ve enough to think he’ll never have to compromise. And then one night Jake MacLean walks into the shop and changes everything. Jake Maclean is twenty-eight and a veteran American Army pilot. He's been staying with his ex-pat sister in Toronto while he tries to get his life in order. The problem is, he can't. After his disastrous final mission in Iraq, he's overcome with anger and survivor’s guilt, trapped in a losing battle to atone for a failure he’s sure can never be forgiven. Left without hope, he decides to have his memory of the mission tattooed on his back, with the condemning words: God Will Judge Me. He doesn't expect to fall for the tattoo artist. Gabe falls just as quickly and deeply for Jake, though Jake's reluctance to talk about what happened frustrates and worries him. Gabe knows Jake isn't doing well, but accepting Jake’s claims that he's "fine" is far easier than dealing with the frightening truth. But soon it’s horribly clear Jake can’t control his panic attacks or flashes of violence, and he's getting worse. If Gabe can’t help him face his demons, Jake is headed for a crash -- and there’s every chance he’ll take Gabriel down with him.

Black Hawk Tattoo

Jake had purposely waited to bring Gabriel over until he knew she and Molly would be in bed, but it still worried him Alice hadn’t even heard the warning beeps of the alarm before Jake turned it off. Jake had been tempted to just stand there until the alarm clicked over from the warning to its full air-raid siren level blare, just to see if his sister or his niece would hear it and wake up. He would’ve just pretended he’d forgotten the code when Alice stormed downstairs. She’d have been pissed as hell but Jake was sure she’d believe him. He only didn’t because in the end he hadn’t wanted to start another fight.


“Yeah, I know about the brake and the gears,” Gabriel said.


Jake’s quick glance showed Gabriel was stepping on the brake like he was trying to crush it, but the stick slid easily to the drive position and Jake grinned at Gabriel’s satisfied smile


Chapter 89