vast relief filled Eric, as if he were finally able to set down a heavy load he’d been carrying, and he smiled.
“Glad you could make it,” he said simply.
Her face relaxed into a smile of sheer relief, as if she’d gotten good news she’d hoped for but hadn’t expected. Eric stepped back, gesturing for her to enter.
“Wouldn’t miss it for worlds,” Ria answered.

Later—much later—there was time to talk it all out. Ria explained the whole story from the beginning as she’d managed to piece it together, about Threshold’s black-budget project to come up with a drug