The Gender Lie (The Gender Game #3) by Bella Forrest (ebook reader for laptop TXT) 📗

reticence to allow Ms. Dale out was troublesome. I was also worried that Violet was beginning to buy into what Desmond was telling her. Desmond had obviously earned some measure of Violet’s respect in the past month, but it was… disconcerting. I still didn’t know exactly what she stood for.

Violet sat down on a bench with her back to me, folding her hands and resting her elbows on her knees. Her gaze was fixated on the floor. Although her talk with Desmond had happened hours ago, I could still see the aftermath in her posture. There was an inner turmoil raging within her.

Sensing this was my chance to discover what was going on, I sat down next to her. She turned her head to face me, a small and hopeful smile lighting up her eyes for a few brief seconds before bleeding back into the darkness she was battling.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey,” she murmured.

“I, uh, saw you and Desmond earlier,” I commented.

Violet released a sigh and nodded. “She was impressed with your first day,” she said. “I was too, for the record.”

I couldn’t miss the pride in her eyes. “It was a good day,” I agreed.

“What you did with Cody was genius,” she added.

I shrugged. “It seemed like the right thing to do. The kid is strong though.”

Her expression morphed to concern. “Are you hurt? I hope you didn’t overexert yourself.”

I shook my head and laughed. “Relax. I didn’t hurt myself. It’s just hard not being in fighting form. If that kid had been smarter…” I trailed off, not needing to remind myself that working with these boys came with risk.

Violet leaned into me, resting her head against my shoulder. “Good,” she said. “Did you remember to do those exercises this morning?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, mother.”

Violet gave me a shove with her shoulder, forcing a laugh out of me.

“I mean, yes, dear,” I said.

She smiled ruefully, before crossing her eyes and sticking her tongue out at me. I was still amazed by her ability to turn the most unladylike actions into adorable mannerisms.

She gently pushed me back and looked deep into my eyes. “Speaking of parenthood… I have to say, I never saw you as the fatherly type, but…”

I froze, a small tremor of alarm rolling through me that was purely an instinctual reflex, one shared by most men when women started throwing words around like children and father.

Violet, being Violet, didn’t miss the flash of panic on my face and broke out giggling. “I wasn’t trying to imply that,” she gasped. “We’re not even in a position in our relationship to discuss that.”

“Oh, we have a relationship?” I asked with a teasing note in my own voice, and she flushed bright red, her eyes seeking refuge in anything but my gaze.

“I… well…” she mumbled, and I reached over, putting a finger under her chin and forcing her to meet my gaze.

“Relax. I was just teasing. I know we haven’t discussed it yet, but that’s the great thing with us—we don’t have to. We just know.”

She blushed prettily and I pushed back a lock of her hair, feeling inordinately pleased that our talk was going so well, if not a little off the rails.

“So, what else did you talk about?” I asked, nudging her with my shoulder.

Violet’s smile faded and she stood up, shoving her hands into her pockets and looking around. I watched as she crossed the room and turned, pressing her back against a locker.

“Desmond told me her plans for starting this war,” she said finally.

I scooted forward on the bench and rested my elbows on my knees. “And?”

Violet blew out. “She wants to… engineer a war between Patrus and Matrus, and then move in once it’s done.”

I stood up, alarmed. “What, that’s crazy!”

She rocked back and forth on her feet, her gaze on the grey and white tiled floor. “I thought that too… but…”

“What? There’s no but, Violet. She’s planning on murdering people!”

Violet made a frustrated sound. “I know that, Viggo. But I don’t think it’s that simple. Not everything is that black and white.”

I stared at her, surprised. “How can you say that? All those people who would be caught in the middle of...”

“You don’t think I’ve thought of that?” she snapped. “My cousin is in Patrus. My aunt and uncle—my family. People who still cared about me when everyone else thought I was worthless. Believe me, I’m thinking about it.”

I didn’t know about Violet’s family, other than her brother. My own family was nonexistent—my mother had died when I was young, and my father shortly after I finished the academy. We hadn’t been particularly close, and I had been an only child. Still… I had people like Alejandro in my life. He had taken me in, despite my rough edges.

Refocusing on the conversation, I felt a strange sensation, almost like vertigo, that things were spiraling out of control. “I just don’t understand what there is to think about,” I said. “There’s right and then there’s wrong.”

Violet shot me an incredulous look that slowly became jaded. She gave a slow, bitter laugh and shook her head. “They don’t even play by the rules,” she said, pulling her right hand out of her pocket to point at a wall. “Look at what they’ve built. Think about what they’ve done. They know what they’ve done here is wrong. That’s why they’ve tried to bury it!”

“So we bring it to light. Let the people decide.”

“In Matrus. And when the civil war starts, what do you think happens? Patrus steps in and tries to crush all of Matrus. You cannot tell me that is the right play. There are not enough words in the English language to convince me of that.”

I reeled back, quite shocked at her vehemence. “But, Violet… it’s drastic. The loss of life alone would be catastrophic.”

She swallowed, seeming to back down from her outburst and collect herself. She nodded. “It is. But… I don’t really see any other way of bringing down this system. The Liberators