Page 79 of One Kind Hand

Cody held up a hand. “Yes, you can. You’re Austin Fucking Rayhill and you are the king of action-adventure movies. Nothing gets in your way of doing your job.”

“Except for mental breakdowns.”

“If you’re aware you’re having a mental breakdown, you’re not having a mental breakdown.”

Austin wasn’t sure that made sense, but he liked Cody’s resolve to help him calm down. He looked around the immediate area. “Is Charlie here?” He’d gotten out of her chopper with no explanations. A part of him felt bad for that. Another part of him was completely embarrassed by his lame behavior.

“She was, but a driver took her back so she can fly the chopper in for the scene,” Cody said. “The scene that you are going to rock. I know this because you always become your characters, Austin. Every single time. You make it so believable that everyone thinks they’re watching a real person, not some scripted, fictional character. So you’re going to turn that dial up as far as it goes and then a little more. You’re going to become the hero of Hunting Justice. The hero who isn’t afraid of water.” Cody shook him by the shoulder a little. “You’re going to bury Austin Rayhill and all his shit way down deep and be Dalton Rush. Got it?”

Austin nodded, feeling like that approach might actually work. He dug out his phone, ignoring the missed call and text from Charlie, and pulled up the script. Sliding out of the makeup chair, he read a few lines as he looked in the mirror in front of him. The more he read, the more he let anxious Austin fade into the background.

“You ready?” Cody asked, standing beside him.

“Yeah.”

“Excellent. Let’s do this.” He turned to leave as Maria returned, but Austin snagged his agent’s—his friend’s—arm.

“Thanks, man.”

“It’s what I do, dude.” He patted Austin’s hand. “You succeed, I succeed. We all stay happy.” He stepped out of Maria’s way. “When we’re done shooting today, whiskey’s on me tonight.”

“Sounds good.” Drinking with his friend would certainly help scrub the memory of this morning’s flight from his brain.

Maria was able to paint on those bruises and Austin took his place on the set. He delivered his lines now that Cody had talked him off the ledge, but as soon as the sound of Charlie’s helicopter reached his ears, his stomach churned.

“I’m not Austin Rayhill,” he mumbled to himself, his back to the camera as he waited for the chopper to be overhead. “I’m a character hunting for justice. I’m Dalton Rush.”

Charlie landed the helicopter on the agreed upon mark, the aircraft touching down as gracefully as a dragonfly on a blade of grass. She stared straight ahead as she’d no doubt been instructed to do, not looking at him when he boarded.

Austin slid on headphones and gave a menacing look out the window, as if he were plotting his revenge against the bad guys and Charlie zipped them away from the scene of the fight below. They redid this same scene from a few angles with different cameras which was standard protocol. What wasn’t standard protocol was the awkward tension between Austin and Charlie inside the chopper’s small cabin. From the start, Austin had felt a strong connection to this intriguing woman. Now that connecting line was all knotted up and he hated it.

When the director signaled he was satisfied and the cameras stopped rolling, Charlie landed. She immediately ripped off her headphones and grabbed Austin’s arm before he could exit the chopper.

“Austin, please listen to me.” The hurt in her voice reached into his chest. “I never meant to upset you. I didn’t know.” She released his arm then repeated in a softer voice. “I didn’t know.”

Austin studied his lap for a few silent moments. “I know you didn’t.”

“Why are you so afraid of the water?” Her question wasn’t full of judgment. Instead, concern laced every word and warmth took the place of the chill that had frozen Austin’s body since this morning.

He peered out the chopper’s windows. “Not here. I’ve got more scenes to shoot today and if I open that can of crazy, I’ll be no good to anyone. I’m barely holding it together as it is. I can’t cost the production team any hours because I’m a basket case.”

“You’re not a basket case,” Charlie said. “I watched you do your job and do it remarkably. Considering I fucked you up good first thing today.” She sifted out a breath then peeked over at him. “Will you tell me later? Can we talk tonight?”

He nodded, though the thought of spilling the story of his parents’ deaths made his stomach ache. But Charlie deserved an explanation for his freakout. Over the past few weeks, they’d had fun together and she’d become important to him. More important than most people. He couldn’t let this one big secret of his ruin what was quite possibly the best thing to ever happen to him.

“Will you forgive me too?” Charlie’s voice was small as she asked the question. She wasn’t a woman who did small so Austin knew how horribly she felt over the morning’s incident.

Austin summoned the strength to cover her hand with his. “Of course. Like you’ve said. You didn’t know.” What a coward I am. “We’ll talk later.” Sliding his hand off hers, he climbed out of the chopper and walked toward wardrobe to change for the next scene they were shooting today.

After a few minutes, Charlie’s chopper roared to life and she lifted to the skies like a huge bird. He had no doubt she’d be back to find him later for that story he owed her. He didn’t look forward to that time, but if he wanted this relationship to continue—and by God, he did—he needed to unload the darkness inside him that made him so afraid of the water.

Then Charlie needed to decide if she could still be with him.

Hours passed as Austin shot scene after scene, falling deeper and deeper into his character as Cody had coached him to do. It was turning into a fine coping mechanism. Maybe this character could also be the one to meet with Charlie and recount the tale of Austin’s eighteenth birthday gone wrong.

He shook his head. No. The real Austin Rayhill had to be the one to have that conversation with Charlie.

Cassandra caught up with him as he headed for the prop department to get rid of his fake weapons for the day. “Great job today,” she said.