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“Send him in, Melinda. He’s got a few minutes of my time.”
Melinda disappeared, and a moment later the door opened wider for Kenneth to come in. Immediately, Jason noticed that the younger man’s demeanor was not what he expected. Kenneth was looking rather…subdued. Almost as if he was bracing himself for something bad.
Now Jason was on his guard. Something was going on here, and he didn’t know if he needed to get out of the way of whatever was coming.
He stood up as Kenneth approached. “Barron.”
“Mr. Munro.” Kenneth hesitated by the desk, his hands shoved into his pockets. “I need to talk to you. It’s about…well, it’s about everything.”
“What does that mean?”
Kenneth didn’t respond. Jason hadn’t seen him like this before. Whatever was going on had to be bad enough that Kenneth wasn’t his usual bravado self. He came around the desk.
“You said to Melinda that you wanted to talk to me. I can’t help you if you don’t say anything.”
“It was me.”
It took a moment for Jason to realize what he had said. Even then, it still left him confused.
“What was you? What are you talking about?”
Kenneth swallowed heavily. “I’m the one who trashed your car.”
“What?” Jason stared. “It was you?”
“Well, it was my brother and a couple of his buddies. But I told them to do it.”
The words sank in, but they were somehow not taking hold.
“I…you…what the hell?” Jason said. “Why would you do that? You smashed up a car for what?”
“Quite a few of us didn’t want you here.” Kenneth scowled, his eyes on the floor. “We didn’t want to have a rich bastard coming in and taking over.”
“But you got to stay at the club with my money,” Jason pointed out. “You even got to have a proper salary for the first time. No need to work at that drive-thru anymore.”
“I get that, and I’m grateful for it. But the thought of what you could do to change the club grated on me. I didn’t want anything to change. I wanted you to leave.”
“Even if it meant losing the ability to focus on your football full-time?”
Jason was still really confused. Kenneth was a grown man, and while he was giving an explanation for his actions, he was still not making any sense.
Jason leaned against his desk. “Are you seriously telling me that you got people to vandalize my car to get me to leave? Even if that meant losing out on all the money I was putting into the club? Because if I left, I would have taken my money with me. I would have let you guys rot.”
Kenneth flinched. “That’s what Carl said you would do.”
“Carl knows about this?”
“He heard my brother ranting about smashing up your car and you not going anywhere and confronted him. My brother told him everything.” Kenneth shuffled from foot to foot. “I’ve just had my ass handed to me. Carl’s furious with me. Said I was jeopardizing the position of the team. We wouldn’t be able to survive without the cash injection you gave us. Playing football means nothing if we haven’t got any monetary value behind us.”
At least Carl had some sense. Jason wished he had brought the coach in before to scream at the players. He shook his head.
“You know what you and your friends did was breaking the law, don’t you?”
“I know. And Carl says I’ve got to suffer the consequences. He’s suspended me from the team until you’ve decided what to do with me.”
“He actually suspended you?”
“He was going to kick me off completely, but he gave me a chance to come clean to you about what I did.” Kenneth gave him a nervous look before glancing away. “I know I don’t deserve any forgiveness, but I’m sorry, Mr. Munro. I’ll do whatever you want. I just don’t want to lose my place on the team.”
