The Gender Game 5: The Gender Fall(94)

“Are you okay?” I asked softly. “I mean, with Owen leaving?”

Thomas blinked behind his glasses and fidgeted slightly. “No,” he mumbled. He took off his spectacles and began cleaning them on his shirt.

I hesitated, and then leaned forward. “Do you want to talk about it?”

He met my gaze again, squinting at me slightly before replacing his glasses on his nose. “What would I say?”

Shrugging, I settled back in my chair. “I’m not sure,” I replied honestly. “It’s more out of a… social obligation that we ask. I don’t think it’s required that you take me up on the offer.”

“Would it be wrong of me to do so?”

“Not at all,” I said with a smile.

Thomas nodded, his gaze drifting away for a moment. “Have I ever told you how Owen and I met?”

I shook my head. “No, you haven’t. Would you like to?”

“I would.” He paused for a second, collecting his thoughts, and then sighed. “A couple of years ago, Desmond had recruited Owen and two Patrian males to join the Liberators. She put Owen in charge, but the other males were… aggressive and short-tempered. Owen was having a hard time keeping them in line.

“Owen brought them into the sewers after a supply raid had gone off the rails. It was a last-ditch effort to avoid the Patrian patrols. Anyway, after they met me, they started to…” He trailed off, looking away.

“Bully you?” I offered, and he nodded, meeting my gaze, his dark eyes glistening and his mouth curling in distaste.

“That would be one word for it. Owen, well, he tried to get them to stop, but they knew what I was, and they were relentless. At one point, they broke my wrist with their ‘teasing.’ I guess that’s when Owen had had enough.” He met my gaze then, his eyes hard and flat.

“What did he do?” I asked.

“He crushed some sedatives from one of our first-aid packs into their food, and then tied them up. Then he brought me in to… exact some revenge.”

“I see,” I whispered, surprised by the bloodthirsty look on Thomas’ face. No wonder Thomas had given Owen his allegiance so completely. The move was ruthless but had a kind of street justice to it, and under the circumstances, I wasn’t sure I could blame Owen or Thomas. “What did you do to them?”

“Nothing that would be permanent,” Thomas said softly. “Owen wouldn’t allow it. He was hard but fair, so they were in relatively one piece when I finished with them, and they made sure to steer clear of me afterward.” His face tightened almost imperceptibly. “They died on a mission a few months later, and I don’t miss them.”

“I’m sure you don’t,” I agreed, trying not to let my shock at the callous statement show. This was Thomas—I expected such statements from him now. “Still, I’m sorry Owen didn’t say goodbye to you when he left. It seems like he was one of the few people you were really comfortable with here.”

Thomas shrugged. “He’s the only one who seems to care. He always makes sure I’m okay, and he… he wasn’t put off by my… social ineptitude. He treated me like a person, not a tool. I mean, while I don’t believe in emotional decision making, it doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings.”

I frowned, realizing that I, too, had probably been a little cruel to Thomas when I had first met him. At the very least, I still didn’t check in on him as often as I could, and I never told him how much I appreciated him and what he had done for us. I opened my mouth, but Thomas waved me off. “I wasn’t asking for you to do that, Violet,” he announced with some aplomb. “I just… I wanted to share what Owen did for me. That’s all.”

Licking my lips, I nodded. “Well, I appreciate it.”

“Besides, there is an eighty-four point three six percent chance Owen will return soon. If I were a gambling man, I would say before the end of the week.”

“Eighty-four point three six percent?” I blinked, a smile tugging at my lips. “I would not wager against those odds.”

“Smart move, Ms. Bates.” He met my gaze, a shadow of a smile on his lips. “I so dislike taking from those who have nothing in the first place.”

I laughed then, my earlier disappointment and sadness evaporating under my delight at Thomas actually making a joke. It was so out of character I couldn’t help but appreciate it even more. Besides, if Thomas said Owen would be back, I knew he would be. Thomas was rarely wrong about these sorts of things.

Fueled by that burst of optimism, I turned to the computer at my station and cued up the blueprints of Starkrum Stadium, seeing what possibilities it had to offer for our upcoming mission.