In April, she learned the truth about her mother’s death and discovered she had a sixteen-year-old half sister, Eve Truman. Eve now lived with Max in New York and after the upheaval in Eve’s life—not to mention her first meeting with the entire Revere-Sterling clan over the summer—Max didn’t want to travel. She focused on crime in New York City and the surrounding area, which provided enough content to keep her monthly cable crime show filled. She now hosted a weekly interview program on crime-related issues for another show that NET aired, and her producer, Ben, said he wanted more. She’d already put her foot down on a daily segment, but she was seriously considering moving to a weekly crime magazine format. It could mean more time in the studio—and thus more time in New York—but she was also in the middle of writing her fifth true crime book, which was a series of chapters about mothers who kill, starting with Blair Donovan. Dr. Dillon Kincaid, Lucy’s brother, had already agreed to write the foreword for the book and was collaborating on some of the cases she’d selected.

However, the one thing Ben really wanted was for her to cover a high-profile murder trial in California that started in March and would keep her on-site for at least two weeks. She didn’t want to leave Eve for that long, and while she debated taking her sister out of school—the girl was smart and could work on her own for a couple of weeks—Max realized that she would miss Ryan.

She already missed FBI Agent Ryan Maguire now, which was wholly unlike her. She had never missed a lover before—sure, she missed sex and intelligent conversation, but she’d been a loner growing up and she craved her privacy. That Ryan had so easily moved into her life and she still enjoyed him after seven months of seeing him weekly—almost daily, she realized—gave her pause. He spent more time at her penthouse than his own apartment. He was staying there now with Eve. Max had intended to let Eve stay by herself—she was nearly seventeen and responsible, plus the building was secure—but Ryan offered, and Eve seemed happy to have him around.

Her life had definitely changed.

She sent Ryan a text message saying that she’d arrived, had dinner with Sean and Lucy, and was meeting with Stanley Grant’s attorney in thirty minutes. He responded almost immediately:

Eve and I are at Black Burger. You don’t know what you’re missing! Call me later. Love you.