There are two reasons - 1) Lennie is a responsibility to George, and George takes that seriously. 2) Lennie is a companion to George.
George made a promise to Lennie's dying aunt to take care of him. George is an honest man and a loyal one. He will not break his promise. We know this in the first chapter when he explains how hard it is for him having to care for Lennie:
I could go get a job an’ work, an’ no trouble. No mess at all, and when the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get whatever I want . . . An’ whatta I got,” George went on furiously. “I got you!”
And yet, despite his anger, he won't give Lennie up.
The second reason is the companionship. A major theme in this novel is that of loneliness and alienation. The life of these migrant workers during the Depression was a sad one. This is demonstrated through the "handicaps" of the characters - Lennie's intellect, Candy's hand, Crook's skin color, etc.. However, Lennie and George have a friendship these other characters don't. This is why Candy wants to join with them in the plan to buy a little farm. He wants to have a group, too.
"Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place....With us it ain't like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us."
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