Well, how was that for confusing? Jaggar followed Barb into her office for a quick breakdown. "I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with that, Barbara. You saw that, right?"

Barb nodded. "Yeah. Sit tight. I'll speak to him."

"This is bullshit. He pretty much acted like I was some kid. I mean this is the crap I'm dealing with. If that's the way he feels then what the hell am I doing here?"

"You're here because the studio execs like you. They think you are ratings gold. So take that to heart. You and Griffin work well together. And like him or not, he backed you."

"Yeah, but why?" It didn’t make any sense. Given their history and how much he disliked her, he should have sided with his mentor. He seemed to like you enough last night. She groaned and shoved the thought aside. "I mean, it's to his benefit if everyone thinks I'm incompetent. He'll get his own show. Especially if this shit doesn’t work out. They'll move me back to doing daytime segments and there goes my career."

"Relax. You had valid points. And even Griffin, as much of an ass as he is, couldn't discount them. Remember for him, it's all about ego. He wants the best show he can have because it reflects well on him. So your ideas, he will take them and he will support you. He might be a douche, but he's a smart douche."

Jaggar chuckled. "Okay, I'm going to head down and start working on the Randall piece. I assume I'll be researching and interviewing the wife."

"You do that, I'll deal with Ryan, but don’t let Griffin push you around. Take the pieces you need to on that story. It's yours to lose."

She was back at her desk long before Griffin was. No doubt he and Ryan were off to some boys lunch or something to celebrate her humiliation. Don’t be a brat, he stood up for you. Yeah, he had, and she'd love to know why.

For the next half hour, she poured over research on Randall and made a series of notes. Something about the guy didn’t sit well. She made some notes to follow up with his sister and his father if she could get access to the oil tycoon. Jaggar also pulled images of the family: Randall, his wife and their very blond children. One of whom had a case of heterochromia with one blue eye and one dark brown. From the research Jaggar had done, she knew the condition was genetic. And she hadn’t been able to find a single case of it in either of the parents’ backgrounds.

Randall’s hair was a sandy brown, so he might have been blond as a kid, but given his wife’s dark hair color, she wondered if the woman dyed it. The kids looked a little like their father, but not at all like their mother. Their father's strong patrician nose, his smiling eyes as well. But the rest of them looked like neither parent.

After several calls trying to track down his father, she finally hit pay dirt with the sister. Or at least the sister's assistant.

"So when do you think that Miss Randall would be able to meet with me? I only want to speak with her about her brother. I swear, I’m not going after the Randall family. I’m just trying to do a piece about his run for Congress and—"

"Miss Jakes, or whoever you claim to be, we've had the likes of you call before and try to get information about Mr. Randall from the rest of the family. It won’t work. We paid once but we won’t pay again. So you're barking up the wrong tree."

Jaggar hung up the phone. Who had they paid? And what the hell was he hiding? Usually if there were payments happening, it was a secret that wouldn’t stay hidden forever. Good thing she was like a dog with a bone.

By the time Griffin was back, she had something. Something good. The question was, did she share it or not? He was her partner on this, like it or not, but would he shove her out? Or would he back her like he'd done earlier?

When he walked in, the tension crackled and spat like someone had just flicked water into a fire. But unlike this morning, he didn’t go straight to his desk; instead, he skirted the outer cubicle and came straight for her.

She sat back. "So you're talking to me now? I thought I was persona non grata."

He flattened his lips before sitting forward in his chair.

"I'm sorry."

She lifted her brows. "What? Did the great Griffin Styles just say he was sorry to me?"

He sighed. "Okay, fine. You have a right to that. I was being a prick. You just— you've been getting in my head."

"It's not like I knew last night was going to happen," she blurted out. "You're acting like an idiot. Plus, what do you have to be mad at? You kissed me then left. This morning you acted like I did something to you."

"You're right. Is that what you want to hear?"

Jaggar sighed. No, that was not what she wanted to hear. Okay, it was, but somehow she still didn't feel any better. "It's fine. Let's just get to work."

"Okay." He nodded. "But before we get started, can you tell me what the fuck happened with Ryan? He's gunning for you and if I’ve wandered into some shit I don’t understand, I'd rather know sooner than later."

She swallowed hard. This was the last thing she wanted to talk about. "It's nothing."

"It's something. Because I've known the guy since I was at Yale. I've never seen him react to someone the way he reacts to you. What gives?"

"Griffin, do we have to do this?"

"If we're going to work together, then yeah, we kinda do."

She licked her lips as she rolled her shoulders back. "Yeah, you want to know. But then I’ll get punished for talking to you. I've had enough of an ass handing today thank you."

"That was wrong of him and I've been a dick. I get it. I just want a truce so we can work together. I'm trying to understand."

"Fine," she muttered. "You want to understand so badly? He asked me out a year ago when I first started. I turned him down. Ever since, he's been like that. Treats me like a moron. I was even nice about it."

"Seriously?"

She shrugged. Not like things could get any worse. "Don’t believe me, ask him yourself. You saw how he treated me today. That's my normal."

Griffin shook his head. "I just can’t believe he'd do that."

Of course he didn't. They were boys. "Fair enough, now if you want to talk about our assignment, then I have something."

He studied her closely for a minute. “You're serious, aren't you?"

"Heart attack serious." She patted her file. "Assignment."

"Right. Yeah."

"I did some digging into Randall. And eventually found Layla Price. And she was willing to talk to me. It seems that the Randall family paid a substantial amount of money to have a problem of theirs go away. I don’t know what, but I do know who."

He took the file. "What do you think they're hiding?"

"Dunno. But her name is Elsa Katput. Lithuanian. She's been in the States for ten years. Came here as a dancer. Randall senior paid her a cool million two years in a row. I can’t tell for what. She is listed as an art dealer as her current profession. All I know is that after that second payment, Junior quit the family biz. Went out on his own. This was right around the time Junior had his first kid."

"You thinking mistress?"

"That's what I want to go find out. Turns out the girl likes to party, blogs about it too. From her blog, turns out we have some friends in common."

He frowned. "Who?"

"She's a sometimes burlesque dancer at Club Prestige. She's a member. I've made some calls to Serena to see if I can get a comped visit. Elsa's going to be there in a couple of nights."

"I'm coming with you."

Jaggar sat back. "The hell you are. While I've been out pounding the pavement all day and you've been sitting around with your thumb up your ass, I found a potentially good story here. You don’t just get to ride piggyback. Besides, Club Prestige is only comping for one. I called in a favor."

"Fine. But I'm not trying to steal your angle. I'm trying to help."

"Right and you’re not on Ryan's side."

"I backed you didn't I?"

"Yeah, speaking of that, why did you back me?"

“Because you’re my partner. And you were right.” He shrugged. “What was that you called me? And egotistical ass? Maybe that’s true. But I’m also fair. Ryan’s bullshit? Not cool. You follow up on the Elsa chick. I’ll work another angle and see if I can get to Club Prestige on my own, give you an assist. I want to do some digging around Randall’s kids.”

“You mean besides the fact that they don’t look like they belong to their parents?” she muttered.

Griffin’s brows rose. “You noticed that too?”

“Hard not to.” She watched him as he walked back to his desk, taking in the rear view. He’d stood up for her today all in the name of fairness. Maybe she’d need to revise her assessment from egotistical ass to merely egotistical.