When Calhoun answered a knock on the door of his dorm room in the evening of his abrasive meeting with President Sherman Sexton, he was shocked to see his grandfather standing there in the hall. "Vernon," he said, using the old man's first name like he often did, "what are you doing here?"340Please respect copyright.PENANAZGExuzbU9v
"I came to see you, obviously. And to bail your stubborn ass out of trouble. You gonna let me in?"
Calhoun stepped back out of the doorway.
"Sure. Come in." Even though he was several inches taller and considerably heavier than his grandfather, he still felt a little intimated by the old man. "Guess you, um, heard about the trouble a few days ago."
"Be hard not to," Erickson said as he closed the door behind him. "I don't do that, whatchacallit, social media stuff myself, but everybody who works for me does. You made yourself famous, boy. Or infamous, dependin' on who's doin' the talkin'."
"I didn't do anything wrong," Calhoun said firmly. "I was defending somebody else, at first, and after that, I was sticking up for myself. I seem to remember both of my granddads telling me that's what I'm supposed to do. When somebody else starts a fight..."
"You make damn sure you finish it," the old man growled. "Yeah, I can't argue with that. My secretary showed me some of them videos people shot on their phones. You did the right thing, son. Even so, I was gonna let you handle it yourself. Let you navigate those troubled waters. Figured you'd learn more that way." Erickson swept back the lapels of his Western-cut jacket and hooked his thumbs behind his belt. "But that was before I found out you were about to have a whole swarm of locusts descend on you. Lawyers, I mean."
"Yeah, I figured that out," Calhoun said with a smile. "They plan on coming in and stripping me to the bare bones, just like locusts."
Erickson blew out a disparaging breath.
"You don't have a whole lot to be stripped of, fortunately. You're not rich----yet."
"I don't care if I ever am," Calhoun said.
"Spoken like a boy whose family has always had plenty of money."
Calhoun would've argued with that, just on general principles, but he supposed it was true. His dad had always been a very successful lawyer in Houston, and they had always had plenty of money, or at least so it seemed. Then drugs, booze, and hookers had leeched off most of the available funds, which revealed just how fragile a foundation the family's finances had been built upon. Seeing his mom go through that was one of the reasons Calhoun had taken her last name and cut all ties with his dad. He didn't know where the man was now or if he was even still living, although Calhoun suspected that Vernon Erickson kept up with his son, disowned or not.
"What do you want?"
The old man laughed harshly.
"You sound like you're glad to see me."
"I'm always happy to see you, you know that. But I know that you're not in the habit of just dropping in on people for no good reason."
"True," Erickson said with a shrug. "Well, like I was saying, I heard rumors that you were about to get hit with a shitload of lawsuits. Considering what I saw in that video, I'm not surprised."
"No charges were brought against me," Calhoun pointed out. "The college didn't even take any real action against me. The president just urged me to withdraw."
"I hope you told him where he could shove that."
"Something like that."
"Well, no charges were filed against you because there's too much evidence that you were acting in self-defense when that mob of hood-wearin' bullies attacked you. The stuff that came before, the trouble with that fella who was beating up his girlfriend, there doesn't seem to be any footage of that floating around, so it'd be hard to prove anything in court. Your word versus theirs. But that's why there're civil suits, so things you can't prove in criminal court might get addressed by a jury. The burden of proof's a lot lower, and hell, most civil cases are decided by the emotional state of the people in the jury box, not by the evidence."
"So what do you think I should do?"
Erickson snorted.
"I think you should say thank you to the old man who got you out of this mess. I got some contacts in the county courthouse to look into the matter, found out who was going to file suit against you, and sicced a fleet of lawyers on 'em to make settlement offers. Some accepted the offers right off the bat, and the others got scared into it when my paper-pushers started playin' hardball. Now, I ain't sayin' that there might not be more crawling out of the woodwork later on, but for now, at least, it's over."
"Just like that?" Calhoun stared. "You bought them off?"
"I took the most efficient, least expensive way in the long run. Oh, there were still some of the little bully boys you gave a thrashin' to who wanted to take you to court and punish the big bad Nazi, but once they had some dollar signs dangled in front of their faces, their progressive beliefs faded like a freak dusting of snow in Corpus Christi.
Calhoun shook his head in amazement. His pride made him say, "I didn't ask you for help, you know."
"I don't sit around waitin' for family to come begging," the old man snapped. "Now, what's this about Sexton asking you to withdraw?"
Calhoun waved a hand.
"Forget it. I didn't go along with his suggestion, so it doesn't matter. I'm gonna stick it out and get my master's degree."
"Decided you want to finish your education and improve your mind, did ya?"
"No, I'm just too damn stubborn to let anyone run me off, especially a bunch of whiny little snowflakes."
That made a grin break out on Erickson's rugged face. He clapped a hand on Calhoun's upper arm and said, "There ya go, boy! I never liked anyone trying to tell me what to do, either."
Calhoun felt a little awkward about it, but he said, "I do appreciate what you did. Don't get me wrong about that. I would have fought every one of those bastards in court..."
"Damn right."
"But I can't afford much in the way of lawyers. The only thing is---Won't they think they beat me, since they took the settlements and got paid?"
"They can think whatever they damn well please. A bunch of pajama boys struttin' around and thinkin' they're tough don't amount to a hill o' cowshit to me." Erickson smiled. "And some of them---the most obnoxious of the bunch---are going to get his with some lawsuits of their own in the next week or so. If they can sue you for defending yourself against them, you can sue them for attacking you in the first place."
"Won't the settlements make it look like I was admitting that I was wrong? With that on the record, lawsuits like you're talking about would be tough to win."
"They would if we pressed it. I just want them to get served with that paperwork, see the figure the suit is asking in damages, and dribbled down their legs while they're countin' the zeros."
Calhoun looked at his granddad for a moment, then laughed.
"You are a vicious old man."
"How do you think I made so much money?"
Calhoun didn't answer that. Instead he said, "Why don't we go out and get a beer? You can bring your driver and your bodyguards along."
"Spend the evening in some college hangout? Thanks, but no thanks."
"It's not exactly the malt shop anymore," Calhoun said.
"Maybe not, but I'll still pass." The old man pointed to the desk, where open books were spread out and a computer and a tablet were both on. "And you've got some studying to do, from the looks of it. Get back to work. I didn't go to all that trouble just to have you flunk out."
"Don't worry about that."
"I'm not. I know you're carryin' a 4.0 average."
"You've got spies everywhere, don't you?"
Erickson just grinned, waved, and left the room.
Calhoun went back to the desk and tried to concentrate on what he'd been working on, but it wasn't easy. He was both relieved and annoyed that his grandfather had stepped in to save him from a barrage of lawsuits that would have sucked up all his time and money and ensured that he wasn't able to continue at Stonewall College. His pride was a little wounded, but his practical side knew it was a good thing.
Another knock sounded on the door. Calhoun pushed his chair back, stood up, and stepped across the room to open it. He expected to see his granddad standing there again, and said, "Change your mind about getting that beer, I..."340Please respect copyright.PENANAgGIvPmNkZp
"No, I didn't, because nobody's asked me to go and get a beer," Dr. Brooke Tucker said. "But now that you mention it, I think it sounds like an excellent idea."
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