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Black Hawk Tattoo

Toronto, Canada, 2006. A few months after the worst year of the Iraq war.<br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>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.

Aundrea Singer · LGBT+
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123 Chs

Chapter 86

A thin sliver of the painting was just visible along one edge of the bedsheet. All Jake could see was a strip of black, with grayish brown on the bottom and dark orange toward the top. Jake remembered Gabriel painting the brown a few days ago, but he’d started covering the picture after that. The visible colors didn’t look like anything in particular, but even so, there was something familiar…

He tilted his head, moving to get a better angle to see the painting. That orange color; that was it. It reminded him exactly of the twilight—

Before he really registered what he was doing, Jake had grabbed the bedsheet and yanked it away from the picture. And there was the desert, under the brooding evening sky, obvious despite the still rough lines. And those were the first painted strokes of the burning UH-60…