Ethan's POV
I wasn't going to let him go alone. I said as much before he'd even finished grabbing his keys, and he argued for exactly four seconds before giving up, like some part of him had known I wasn't going to be talked out of it.
The drive out to the estate took almost an hour, most of it silent, Noah's hands tight on the wheel the entire way. I watched the city thin out into dark countryside and thought about the ridge, the redacted report, the sick certainty settling into my chest that whatever we found tonight wasn't going to be small.
The manor itself looked like something out of a period drama, all stone and ivy and windows lit gold against the dark. A groundskeeper let us through the gate without question, clearly used to Noah's arrivals being sudden and unannounced.
Richar
