Page 61 of One Kind Hand

He turned around to walk them off the dance floor, but a slap right across his face stunned the shit out of him.

Chapter Eleven

Charlie rounded Austin so fast, pushing him behind her and her fists up, ready to pound this chick who’d had the nerve to slap him. It only took her a second to recognize the woman.

“Cassandra Wood?” She didn’t lower her fists though. Beating up the actress set to play Austin’s love interest in Hunting Justice was still a possibility. Charlie might enjoy it.

Austin nudged Charlie over a bit so he could stand next to her. His hand slid from his cheek, a red hand imprint marring his skin and increasing Charlie’s desire to deck Cassandra right in her gorgeous face.

The music still pumped around them, but the closest dancers had stopped and formed a circle around them. They’d seen the slap and many of them had their phones out, ready to record whatever happened next.

Charlie hoped they were ready for an ass-kicking because if this woman didn’t have a fucking great explanation for slapping Austin, she was going down. Part of Charlie’s brain analyzed why she was so mad. She’d only known Austin for a few days, but for some reason she was fiercely protective of him. Of course he could no doubt protect himself. Nonetheless, her ire was raised and it wasn’t going anywhere until this bitch started talking.

“Let’s take whatever this is somewhere else,” Austin said over the music, as he took Charlie’s hand. His shoulders relaxed when she accepted his hand as if he were relieved.

“Whatever this is?” Cassandra bit back, her voice loud enough to make the onlookers more interested. “Like you don’t know.”

Charlie had enjoyed Cassandra’s work. Up until now. The woman was ten levels of attractive with long blond hair that curled seductively around her face and shoulders. She was a few inches taller than Charlie, all long limbs and perfect curves. The angry arch of her eyebrows and the stern line of her lips right now, however, made Charlie’s free hand curl into a fist again.

“Cassandra, please,” Austin said. “I have a table upstairs. Let’s sit and get to the bottom of why in the fuck you’d slap me like that in public.”

“Fine. If you want to play clueless, I’ll explain it all for you.” Cassandra spun on a spiked heel, the short white dress she wore like a lit bulb against all the dark colors of the club.

“I don’t know what her problem is, nor do I appreciate being slapped,” Austin said to Charlie as they reached the stairs and climbed up behind Cassandra. “But I take comfort in the fact that you were ready to throw down for me.” He leaned over and planted a kiss on her cheek.

“Instinct,” Charlie grunted.

“You’re a badass even in a sexy dress.”

“Good thing you got between us,” she said. “Would have been real cute to have me beating up Cassandra Wood all over social media.”

“Something tells me you would have won that battle.”

Cassandra folded her arms as she waited for them at the top of the stairs.

“I still might.”

Austin tightened his hold on her hand. “Let’s allow her to talk first. There has to be a reason she did that. I’ve worked with her before without incident and I haven’t seen her since our last movie together.”

“Say the word if you want me to start jabbing and crossing.”

Austin laughed, the red mark on his cheek fading. “You got it, killer.” He walked past Cassandra. “I have a table over here.”

Cassandra followed them without a word, but Charlie made sure to send her a few eye darts as they meandered through the field of tables to get to the one she and Austin had shared earlier. This was supposed to be the dessert round—the round before the let’s-touch-each-other-in-the-limo round. Charlie wanted to get to that round.

Desperately.

What was strange was that, normally, if a woman came up and slapped the man Charlie was with, she would have naturally assumed the man was at fault. Tonight, however, she was all about defending Austin. There wasn’t even a little part of her that believed he’d deserved to be treated the way Cassandra had treated him. From what she’d seen over the past few days, Austin wasn’t the type of guy to earn that kind of handling.

“Sit, please.” Austin pulled over an extra chair from a nearby table.

Cassandra lowered, but her lips were puckered in anger. Fortunately, the closest tables were empty at the moment, giving them additional privacy.

Charlie hesitated at her chair. Should she give them time to converse privately? No part of her wanted to do that, but whatever was going down between them had nothing to do with her.

When she opened her mouth to ask if she should leave, Austin said, “Please stay, Charlie.”

If he wanted her to stay, she’d stay. Charlie took her seat and kept up her eye dart game.