Crooks taunts and tortures Lennie about George, perhaps, in retaliation against the cruelty of the men towards him in marginalizing him. Also, he wants Lennie to understand what it is like to be without a friend or another man with whom he can talk and do things.
In Chapter 3 as the men play cards in the bunkhouse, George talks with Slim, whose calm manner invites George to talk--
"I ain't go no people," George said. "I seen the guys that go around on the ranches alone. That ain't no good. They don't have no fun. After a long time they get mean. They get wantin' to fight all the time"
"Yeah, they get mean," Slim agreed. "They get so they don't want to talk to nobody."
Perhaps, since Crooks has been isolated for so long, not having been allowed to live in the bunkhouse with the white workers, he has become mean, too. Certainly, he "kept his distance and demanded that other people keep theirs." So, when Lennie steps into his room in the barn, Crooks cruelly tells him to leave, displaying some resentment, as well: "I ain't wanted in the bunk house, and you ain't wanted in my room."
In addition, because the white men call him names as exemplified in Chapter 2 when the field workers came back from the fields, and a man called out to him using a racial slur, Crooks may delight in being cruel in return. In fact, when he initially talks to Lennie about George, he "presse[s] forward some kind of private victory" as he causes Lennie anxiety when he asks him what he would do if George did not return from town and he "never heard of him no more." Lennie whines,
"He won't do it...George wouldn't do nothing like that....Don't you think he will?"
Crooks's face lighted with pleasure in his torture. "Nobody can't tell what a guy'll do....S'pose he gets killed or hurt so he can't come back."
Further, as Crooks continues to taunt the big man, Lennie becomes angry and he walks "dangerously" toward Crooks, asking, "Who hurt George?" Crooks realizes that he has pushed Lennie too far; so, he tells Lennie to sit down, saying, "George ain't hurt."
Crooks said gently,"Maybe you can see now. You got George. You know he's goin' to come back. S'pose you didn't have nobody. S'pose you couldn't go into the bunk house and play rummy 'cause you was black. How'd you like that? ....A guy needs somebody--to be near him....A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody."
Clearly, then, there is a certain resentment in Crooks that he has been so unfairly marginalized. He is an intelligent man, clean, and not used to being treated so cruelly as he is not from the South, but grew up in California. He retaliates against the white men through Lennie by taunting him about George's not returning, but he also wants Lennie to understand how he feels being alone all the time.
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