The Gender Plan (The Gender Game #6)(46)

“You both should go,” I said quietly. “We can’t risk her seeing you.”

Lynne’s face grew tight, her lips thinning in displeasure. I could tell she didn’t want to leave. Morgan, however, laid a hand on Lynne’s arm. “She’s right. Let’s go.” Lynne hesitated, and then nodded. I watched as they both left, leaving Owen, Tim, and me alone.

There was an audible click as the mechanism finished manipulating the lock, and Owen stood up, slowly opening the door. I slipped in, my heart thudding against my chest, prepared to see the worst.

Cody stood mere feet away from Desmond, his back to me. I could see Desmond from my slightly elevated position, her eyes on his face, in spite of my noisy entrance.

I paused, trying to assess the situation. Cody looked over at me, tossing his hair. He stared at me, and then looked back at Desmond. “Goodbye,” he said, and Desmond gave him a beatific smile.

“Until next time, dear Cody,” she said, extending one shackled hand.

The movement broke me out of the state of surprise I was in. Cody hadn’t done anything to try to break Desmond out. That was… decidedly odd. “Don’t touch him,” I ordered as she continued to stretch her hand toward him, and I took a step into the room. Desmond froze, and then sighed, slowly lowering her hand back into her lap.

“Cody, can you please come to me?” I said.

Cody licked his lips, hesitating. “Am I in trouble?”

“Not if you come to me right now.”

He hesitated another second, and then crossed over to me. I held out my hand, and he took it, allowing me to push him toward the door and out of the room, where Owen was waiting. I moved to leave, when Desmond’s voice stopped me.

“I was beginning to think you’d never come visit me,” she said.

This was an obvious barb, one designed to get my defenses up, but I wasn’t in the mood to play. Turning, I crossed my arms over my chest. “Tell me about the boys,” I replied.

Desmond gave me a kind smile. “Are you still going on about that? My, my… it’s like you people have nothing to do!” I shrugged and turned to leave, but her voice stopped me yet again. “Are you not visiting me because I shot you?”

“You missed,” I lied, and she gave me a knowing look.

“Tut, tut, Violet dear. Don’t waste your lies on something as absurd as that. You are such a capable liar. I really did have high hopes for you.”

“Then you shouldn’t have set up my friend,” I replied tartly, thinking of Owen and the bomb she’d had him carry into Matrus.

Desmond laughed at that, and shook her head. “You mean the friend who led you into a trap with me? Pray tell, where is Owen? Did you have the guts to execute him in the basement?”

I bit back my response, realizing with my last one I had fallen into Desmond’s trap. “Tell me about the boys, or I—”

“Violet?” Jay cut me off, and I turned as the young man sprinted into the room. “What happened with Cody?”

“I don’t know,” I replied.

“Jay?” Desmond’s voice held a slender note of hope, making me turn back to her.

Jay looked over, and seemed to realize where he was. He blinked at her and then looked away. “I shouldn’t be in here,” he mumbled, making for the door.

“I did not raise you to be a coward, Jason Alexander Bertrand!” Her voice rose to a shout, and Jay froze in place, his shoulders cringing forward. I saw Tim enter the doorway, an alarmed expression on his face, but I ignored him.

“Don’t talk to him that way,” I hissed at her. “Or I’ll make Tabitha’s little torture chamber look like something out of a fairytale.”

“You think you can intimidate me?” Desmond scoffed, her eyes crinkling with amusement. “I’m a mother. Can you even imagine what I sacrificed for him? The lengths I went to in order to get him into that program? And what? He wants to sulk about it?” She tsked in that way all mothers seemed to have, the one that universally told offspring everywhere that they were a disappointment. After a moment, she added a small shake of her head. “I gave him inhuman strength. I did what any good mother should and would do—I gave him a tool that is going to help him succeed and thrive. So you don’t get to sit there on your high horse and tell me how I can and cannot talk to my son.”

Oh dear God, was Desmond being genuine? If I ignored the angry bite that was directed at me, I found I felt a strange surge of empathy. It urged me to believe in the sorrowful cadence of her voice, the soft remorse, regret, and disappointment painting a picture, not of a monster, but just a woman willing to do anything for her son. Her actions may have been twisted and deplorable, but was it possible that she had been doing what she thought was right for her sons?

The thought left me feeling uncertain, and agitated. Especially since it seemed to take a toll on Jay. He seemed to… curl into himself a little. His shoulders rounded and hunched, his nose dropping down to point at the floor.

“C’mon,” I said as I pressed my hand on his shoulder, gently nudging him out of the room. Closing the door, I saw Owen sitting with Cody at the table. He tossed something at me when I met his gaze, and I reached out to grab the keys Owen must’ve gotten back from Cody. I reached out for them, but Tim’s hand snaked out and got them first, and he went back and locked Desmond’s prison door.