Pursued (Completed) ✔️

Chapter 14 Their families

For Sammie <3
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I felt threatened by the situation but not scared. They were respectable members of our community, Ben was inside and we both had two well trained large Rottweilers to guard us. What could possibly go wrong...

They were all standing when I entered, I stopped and politely asked them to sit.
They did, even going so far as to thank me for my hospitality. I sat on the bench we used as a sorting bench when the shop was closed. I didn't say anything and they were just looking at me.
My reasoning was that they came to me so they could do the talking. I knew enough to know that silence would be better for me.

"Hello, my name is Crystal. I'm Adrien's mother."
"Hello." I simply replied.
"Show her respect." Her husband growled out. He really was a lot like Adrien. He was old but he still looked very good and very much like his son. Hmmm, interesting, they could have been brothers.
"Like you all showed me respect by coming here uninvited, badgering a member of my family?"
"He's not your family, he's a mutt that outstayed his welcome."
"Hey! I don't come to your house and tell you who does and doesn't belong there!"
"You'd be torn to shreds before you even came close to my house."
Arnold responded to my anger and slowly stepped forward, growling.

"Behind!" I snapped at him. Then I patted his head. "I've got this Arnie, thank you."
He pushed against my legs and easily rested his head on my lap for a hug before quietly taking guard position again.
"Those things won't protect you!" The unknown man snapped at me. I put my hand behind me under the bench and grabbed a double barrel shotgun placing it on my lap with my finger on the trigger guard like dad had taught us.
"Well then you will be the first one to find out if they have to protect me at all." I smiled sweetly. He started to get up, his eyes flashed in the shade of the shed and this time I saw it clearly. Maybe I was hallucinating, he wasn't the first person I'd seen that on. Mr McKellar pulled the man down.

"What do you know about that mu_man you let into your house?" He asked kindly.
"Ben! His name is Ben, stop calling him a mutt. He's been part of our family since before the accident, he's dads right hand man and he has protected us from some bad people. He said you are trying to send him away. You have no right!"
"We have all the right!"
"No! Just because your kids are a bunch of spoiled brats that have taken a dislike to him and you run this town doesn't mean you have the right to do anything to Ben!" I snarled.
"She protects him like pack." The other woman with them spoke up in wonder.

I didn't reply. This wasn't the first time I'd heard that word. I knew what it meant but I didn't know why they used it.
"Is he your lover?" She asked me seriously.
"What!? Ew, gross, NO! He like a big brother to me and, ew, he's like, closer to dad's age!"
They laughed, I frowned.
"What are you doing here?.... Really?"

Adrien's mother explained. "The kids were worried about you, they thought your friend might be...unfriendly."
"Bullcrap! I told them he isn't."
"Ben was what you would call a drifter. They have no family and people like that sometimes pass through our area, they ask for permission. Ben asked if he could work here, years ago, we didn't know he had stayed on. He has never been seen around town."
"He doesn't go to town, he lives two towns over and travels most of the time."
"Yet he hasn't been off the place since Adrien left here."

The implication of her words washed over me like a bucket of ice.
"You've been watching our place?" I asked softly, that was way creepy.
"Look, I'm trying to be honest with you. There isn't much by way of forest here, we stay on the other side of the town. We prefer the forest as our backyard, this...processed agricultural area is...uncomfortable. This is part of our area but we let the occasional drifter work here for a while. Ben was one of those drifters and it seems he settled here. Without telling us."
There was something I was missing but I couldn't put my finger on it so I carefully answered.
"Well, technically he hasn't settled here as such. He is sorta family to us and is always welcome to stay the night if he works late but like I say, he has his actual home in another town."
"You are a smart one aren't you."
"I'd like people to think I am." I smiled innocently.
"So has it ever been discussed that he would move closer to the farm, maybe a room at the farm? It's a big house." She asked smiling kindly, but I could tell there was a calculating edge to her words.
"All the time." I smiled back just as kindly. "But he refuses, says he likes his own space in his own town and ....  If he lived with us he wouldn't get as many chances to ride his bike. He loves that old thing."

"He isn't bothering you in any way? David said he was all over you when they were here." I swear I heard her mumble that he was still all over me from the smell of it but I chose to ignore that, I wasn't sure I heard her right. Instead I told her.
"David has a good imagination."
"Are you saying my son is a liar?" The unknown man asked rudely. He didn't look like David. This man was built like a rock, made of muscles and a buzz cut. He rubbed me up the wrong way and I snapped at him.
"I'm saying your son damaged my car. I'm saying he took my car from me without my consent and I haven't gotten it back. I'm saying that David has overstepped his boundaries with me and I could say a lot more. But most importantly,... I am saying that they are all lying if they told you that Ben is a problem."

They looked a bit stunned at my outburst. Crystal, Adrien's mother, slowly got up. My hand gripped the gun tighter. She couldn't have seen from the distance but she put her hands up slightly. "I mean you no harm sweetheart. None of us do. We are here because there are things about your worker_"
I interrupted. "You mean about Ben, my friend and the man that works on our land with our family as dad's right hand man? We have a lot of seasonal workers you know, I need to be clear on this." Sarcasm was dripping from my words.
"Yes, that worker."
"His name is Ben, he's family for us. Not a worker."
"Fine. Ben. There are things about your...Ben.. That you don't know, dangerous things. He's a fighter."
"First he's a drifter, now he's a fighter. Be clear."
"Insolent child!" David's dad snapped.
"It's not insolent if it's correct. And I turn eighteen tomorrow so, you know, I'm not really a child anymore." I smiled defiantly.

"It is obvious that you care for him and that he has not harmed your family in all these years..." Crystal mused out loud. She turned to her husband. "Let him stay."
"If he joins." He instantly replied.
"We'll talk about that later." She told him. "For now, maybe Juliette could call him over so we can have a word with him in private." She looked at me.
I didn't reply, instead I just walked out with the gun still in my grip. I didn't turn my back on them either and Mr. McKellar smiled broadly at me. Like I amused him with my attitude to them.