Captain Jack (Book Three - ManxMan ManxManxWoman)

Chapter Six

It had been awkward, working away while Jarrod stayed hidden behind the counter. On one hand, Jack was happy that Sam and Nick were there in case Trevor showed up with two goons this time, on the other when it got busy Jack was just a little miffed that he and Ben has to pick up the slack while Jarrod got to hang out out back doing nothing.

Especially when the reason he was hiding was because of his involvement in Winky Gate. Fortunately though, around 9:30 Sam, who tended a bar nearby, had to go to work and shortly after Nick who had been adamant about staying until the end of Jack's shift (before he realised how boring it would be), was easily persuaded to ditch.

"Well if those tossers show up just call me, the Grayguard are never too far away," Nick had announced to an empty restaurant before gratefully ditching.

"You're friends are weird," Jarrod crept our of the kitchen with relief on his dad d but still eyed Jack nervously.

"How much of what you heard tonight will you report back to Clarke?" Jack accused him, still kind of pissed that he'd gotten to hang out in the kitchen all night playing with his phone while they worked their arses off.

Jarrod looked annoyed, "I don't agree with any of what he's doing, I told you that."

Jack eyed him, knowing better. "He knows that you work with me though,"

Jarrod nodded.

"So he'll be expecting you to have something for him, info? A reaction to Winky Gate?" Jack pointed out

Jarrod seemed to chew on that as he muttered, "dick storm..."

"Well my crew are calling it Winky Gate so maybe you can tell him that," Jack felt that both names were dumb, but they'd have to call it something. They couldn't keep calling it 'the twenty-odd dickpics I got from the Wickham football team.'

"Hey wait a second," Jarrod seemed to realise something, "hey this is great, why didn't I think of it before?"

Jack and Ben both looked at him questioningly; Ben actually looked annoyed as he started cleaning off tables getting ready for closing time in half an hour while Jarrod still had done nothing all shift.

"I could be like a double agent," Jarrod sounded instantly excited about the prospect, "there's no way I'm going to be recruited by the same NRL team as Jason fucking Clarke so I only need to make it through the next month of exams and then footy finals... I can totally do this. If you give me false information to tell him, he thinks I'm a team player and you're manipulating him,"

It sounded dirty and Jack didn't generally like to play dirty. He'd rather just kick Clarke's arse on the field and show him that sort of shit doesn't help you win football games.

That said; if it was a fight Jason Clarke wanted; Jack had already decided not to back down to one again.

The door opened and Jack groaned on the inside. There was always one last minute customer that slowed down the whole process of packing up and going home.

"I'll do it," Jarrod noticed Jack's agitation and possibly feeling guilty about sitting out back all night as he approached the counter while Jack went to set out the dough to rise for the mornings bake.

"Six inch, or foot long?" He heard Jarrod as they customer he purposely hadn't made eye contact so he didn't have to talk to them.

"Six inch... I guess, maybe a foot long actually, I'm hoping to have someone to share it with," Jack knew that voice. He looked up to see Tyler standing there with his awkward crooked smile watching Jack with nervous eyes.

"What kind of bread?" Jarrod continued obviously not actually listening beyond the information he needed.

"Go set the dough," Jack nudged him out of the way and took over.