So on the fifth day, after the kids drop their dirty bowls into the sink, I don’t stay in the kitchen and do the dishes. I walk out onto the mat and stand next to the oldest girl. She looks at me, confused, then looks straight ahead again when Maart comes up to us.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Of course I’m not going to answer him. But I don’t look at him, either. “Get off my mat and go do the fucking dishes, Anya.”
I do not move.
“What the fuck is wrong with you? Are you trying to piss me off?”
Not really. But this moment is the most human contact I’ve had all week. I know that the kids appreciate the food I serve, but not hearing that little “thank you” when I feed them is really starting to annoy me.
In fact, I don’t care for my assigned position here on the Rock and I would like to renegotiate.
So I reach out and slap Maart across the cheek as hard as I can.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - CORT
I only catch the last bit of Anya’s slap. But the sound of it echoes in my head as everyone on the platform turns to look.
“Oh, fuck.” Rainer breathes these words from a few feet away. I break away from my kids to interfere, but Rainer grabs me by the arm. “Oh, hell no. You will not save her from this. She just…” He chuckles a little and shakes his head. “Fuck that. If anyone else in this camp slapped Maart across the face they would be thrown off the platform and left to die. She wants a fight? She’s about to get one.”
I let out a long breath, but I hang back with Rainer as Maart’s open hand strikes Anya across the cheek with enough force to make her spin and fall onto the mat as the breath rushes out of her lungs and she gasps for air.
Maart stands still, towering over her, his eyes narrowed and angry, his chest rising and falling just a little bit faster than normal. Anya chokes and then spits blood out onto the mat.
“What the fuck, Anya?” Rainer is pissed about the blood on the mat, not the fact that Anya probably just bit a chunk out of her tongue.
She pulls herself up, balancing on her palms, but she doesn’t try to stand up. Instead she slowly raises her eyes up to Maart and glares right back.
That’s a lot of words from a girl like Anya. But I don’t think Maart understands that. He hasn’t spent the last month with her. He hasn’t learned that showing feelings of any kind is like a manic rant in Anya’s world.
But I have. And her look says she’s not done yet.
She gets to her feet—slightly unsteady, but she squares her shoulders and tilts her chin up in defiance. Daring him to hit her again.
He does the same. He won’t hit her again. He would’ve never hit her in the first place. She’s not worth a fight. She’s not a student in this camp, she’s a fucking cook. A dishwasher. Something to be dealt with. To Maart, Anya is nobody.
Well, she was. Until she slapped him across the face.
I have to bring a hand up to my mouth to hide my smile, but my girl has some balls on her.
She obviously has no idea who or what Maart is. Because if she did, she wouldn’t have dared to touch him.
There is just one guy on the whole planet I know can kick my ass in a fight and that guy is Maart. He never made it into Ring of Fire because we planned it that way.
I was the one who would fight and he was the one who would put me back together when it was over. Because I’m not fucking smart enough to treat broken bones and run IV lines and he is.
But make no mistake, Maart is one badass motherfucker. And there is no way he will let some princess of a girl get away with slapping him across the face in front of all these kids.
He has to do something. He has to.
If she slapped me like that, I’d have to do something too.
We all wait—practically holding our breath—as Maart considers his options.
He sucks in a deep breath and then glares at the kids and his words come out as a low, mean growl. “Get back. To work.”
And just like that, the whole platform is on the move. Kids go back to their tasks, wrapping their hands or warming up for the day’s training. Rainer lets out a relieved breath because if Maart was gonna make an example out of Anya, he’d want them all watching. Rainer goes back to his kids too, checking their wraps and play-boxing with Evard.