“Can you come to the front parking lot? There’s been some vandalism.”
Jason sighed. Again?
“Oh, great. What have the idiots vandalized now?”
“A car. And it’s pretty bad.”
Carl scowled. “It better not be my car.”
“It’s not, Mr. McLaren.” The guard was still watching Jason. “It’s Mr. Munro’s car.”
“What?” Jason shot to his feet in shock. “Are you serious?”
“I’m afraid so.”
Jason couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He hurried out of the bleachers and through the stadium to the parking lot. What he saw made his stomach drop.
His car was a mess. All of the windows had been smashed, and the tires were flat. One of the hubcaps was dented, and there was red paint all over the hood. A paint can was lying on its side on the roof, paint dripping down onto the ground. It looked so much like blood it was disconcerting.
For a moment, Jason’s mind went blank. He had no idea what to do. This car had been a recent purchase, and it was his pride and joy. Now it was a mess, and Jason couldn’t do anything to make it all go away.
“Holy shit.”
Jason spun around. Elena was behind him, staring at the sight before her.
She looked up at him with wide eyes. “What the hell happened?”
“I…I don’t know…” Jason swallowed. “What are you doing out here?”
“I was just getting something from my car, and I saw you running through the lobby like a bat out of hell. Now I see why.” She approached his car and whistled. “Someone really did a number on this, didn’t they?”
“That’s an understatement.” Jason could feel himself swaying. “I can’t believe this. The phone calls were bad enough, but this?”
“What?”
“Oh. Nothing.”
Elena put her hands on her hips. “This is not ‘nothing’, Jason. Someone has it out for you.”
“Well, if you’re looking for who might do it, take your pick.” Jason threw out his arms. “The entire town isn’t impressed that I’ve come in and bought their team out. They think it’s a bad idea, and they don’t want me to make any changes, even though the team would have been disbanded with no money coming in significant enough to make it anywhere.”
Elena frowned. “I thought you were a local.”
“Years ago. And it doesn’t matter. I’m a different person now, and I’m worth ten figures and then some. While I can get them out of the hole and bring the team back to how people want it, I’m still an outsider.”
“And you’ve never run a football team before,” Elena remarked.
Jason glared at her. “It doesn’t matter if I haven’t or not. Someone had to do something, and I stepped in. Why can’t people be happy that I saved the club from bankruptcy?”
“Like you said, people don’t like change. Maybe they think there’s going to be something that you’re not telling them and it’s made them nervous.”
Jason snorted. “That’s not the case here. I’m just trying to help. I’m doing what I can to keep the team going by injecting money into it. I’m not here to get phone calls at all hours where the caller just sits there breathing heavily into my ear, and I’m certainly not here to get my car vandalized. And we haven’t even got any fucking cameras out here that fucking work!”
He realized that he was getting more worked up when he saw Elena flinch, and he pulled back. He turned away, running his hands through his hair as he tried to calm down.
“I’m sorry. That was uncalled for.”
“Given what’s just happened, I can’t say I blame you,” Elena said quietly.