Heading to the Locksmith Company
The early morning light filtered softly through the thin curtains of the quiet bedroom. The distant, rhythmic sound of ocean waves crashing and the cheerful chirping of coastal birds outside the window signaled the peaceful start of a new day in Los Angeles.
Arthur slowly opened his dark eyes, his supernaturally enhanced senses immediately mapping the quiet room.
A heavy, tingling numbness ran down his right shoulder. Arthur glanced down and saw Mia still sleeping soundly beside him, her long, flaxen hair spilling beautifully across his broad chest, her soft breaths warm against his collarbone.
He gently tapped her flushed cheek, his movements incredibly careful, and slowly extracted his trapped arm from beneath her resting head.
"Comfortable," Arthur muttered silently to himself, stretching his calloused hand to get the blood flowing again.
He got out of bed, his bare feet making absolutely no sound against the hardwood floor, and walked over to the slightly ajar window. Taking a deep breath of the fresh, salty sea breeze blowing in from outside, he immediately felt his spirits lift.
Last night, perfectly understanding Dom's tacit permission, and heavily swayed by Mia's passionate persistence, Arthur ultimately hadn't left the Toretto residence and had securely stayed over for another night.
Young men and women in their prime are at a highly energetic age where their biological hormones are relentlessly restless. The natural result went completely without saying; it had been another intense night of deep affection and uninhibited intimacy.
Even though they had been highly active until the early hours of the morning the previous day, Arthur, who had woken up just after five o'clock, absolutely didn't feel the slightest bit of physical fatigue.
On the contrary, his superhuman physical attributes meant he now felt exactly as if his entire body was completely filled with raw, inexhaustible strength.
Because he had sweat a massive amount during the night's rigorous activities, his skin felt slightly sticky and deeply uncomfortable.
After fully waking up, Arthur headed straight for the bathroom and took a freezing cold shower. The icy water rapidly shocked his nervous system into absolute, lethal alertness.
He seamlessly took out a clean pair of dark boxers directly from his invisible private space and changed into them. Holding a dry cotton bath towel, he walked out of the bathroom while meticulously drying his wet hair.
Unexpectedly, the absolute moment he stepped into the dim living room, a raspy greeting rang out.
"Hey, up so early?"
Arthur paused, his combat instincts flaring for a microscopic second before he traced the sudden voice. He saw Letty sitting cross-legged on the living-room sofa.
When he looked over, Letty casually picked up a crumpled pack of slim women's cigarettes from the wooden side table. She pulled one out, lit it with a sharp flick of her lighter, took a deep drag, and let her dark eyes run unapologetically over Arthur's heavily sculpted torso.
"Didn't expect that," Letty murmured, exhaling a thin cloud of gray smoke. "Turns out you're the 'slim in clothes, ripped underneath' type."
In the month of June, Los Angeles after five in the morning was already growing bright. No interior lights were on, yet Letty could clearly see the dense, perfectly defined muscles bared on Arthur's upper body.
Every single muscle group stood out in sharp, aggressive definition. Exactly like a flawlessly carved marble statue from an ancient Greek temple, they looked as physically perfect as high art.
Letty was Dominic Toretto's fiercely loyal girlfriend; she frequently saw her workout-obsessed man's explosive, raw power up close. She had always genuinely thought her boyfriend's massive, burly frame was the absolute peak of masculine strength, his heavy muscles a major physical plus.
But today, after suddenly seeing Arthur's perfectly proportioned, terrifyingly dense body in person,
Letty suddenly felt that her towering boyfriend's massive build was perhaps a bit too bulky and slow in comparison. Even those once-powerful muscles now looked oddly out of proportion to her critical eye.
"Nice body!" Letty stated bluntly, unable to help giving Arthur a casual thumbs-up, absolutely not hiding exactly how much she enjoyed the unexpected eye-candy.
"Thanks for the compliment," Arthur replied smoothly, a faint, confident smile touching his lips. Over the past two chaotic months, he had completely, flawlessly gotten used to the straightforward, unapologetic bluntness of Western women.
He draped the thick white towel over his broad shoulders, leaving only his chiseled eight-pack perfectly visible.
"Letty, exactly why are you up so incredibly early?" Arthur asked, his tone genuinely curious.
Letty reluctantly dragged her dark gaze away from his abs and took another irritable puff of her cigarette. She answered in a heavily annoyed, frustrated tone, "You guys made entirely too much damn noise last night. I couldn't sleep a wink."
Dom's sprawling house, exactly like most standard American homes, was constructed primarily of thin wood and drywall. Without specialized, high-grade soundproofing, the acoustic results of their passionate reunion were entirely predictable.
Clearly, neither Arthur nor Mia had tactically considered the thin walls before, so last night had inadvertently become incredibly awkward for the house's other occupants.
To make matters vastly more uncomfortable, Letty's monthly visitor had violently arrived. Strictly to keep her massive boyfriend from getting frustrated or tempted, she had exiled herself to sleep out on the living room sofa.
And just as she had finally managed to drift off, the heavy drumming of Arthur's early morning shower had woken her up all over again.
She was currently nursing a fierce case of morning rage; if she absolutely hadn't just enjoyed the excellent physical eye-candy, the aggressive tomboy in her would have undoubtedly exploded in anger.
Recognizing the highly awkward conversational territory, after a brief bit of polite small talk, Arthur smoothly excused himself to return to the bedroom and fully change his clothes.
When he came back out, fully dressed in his dark tactical gear, Letty was completely up and had meticulously tidied the chaotic living room.
By the exact time Dom and the others finally rose from their beds, it was well past eight o'clock. A massive, incredibly aromatic breakfast that left absolutely everyone amazed was already laid out flawlessly on the dining table, entirely courtesy of Arthur.
Two months into his miraculous transmigration, Arthur perfectly knew standard American flavor preferences. Besides preparing his own massive, protein-heavy portion, he had aggressively modified several high-end recipes to perfectly suit Dom, Letty, and Mia's palates.
For a long, quiet moment, they all ate with profound, genuine contentment.
"I genuinely didn't expect you to have such incredible [Culinary] skills," Letty mumbled around a massive bite. She devoured a hot, quick-made wrap heavily filled with sweet-and-sour glazed pork, her tired face glowing with absolute satisfaction. The rich, sweet-tangy flavor profile suited her taste buds perfectly.
Dom remained completely silent, his stoic poker face giving absolutely nothing away. But the rapidly emptying plate sitting right in front of him undeniably showed that the thick, seared black-pepper beef had hit the absolute spot.
Mia happily finished a massive plate of rich, tomato-braised short ribs; she had grown completely addicted to Arthur's flawless dish. With a generous side of buttery mashed potatoes, she ate with a radiant, deeply contented smile.
After the heavy breakfast, Mia and Letty efficiently cleared the empty dishes and retreated to the kitchen.
Arthur remained seated across from the obviously sleep-deprived Dom. He broke the heavy silence first, his voice a low, calculated rumble: "Dom, I've got a few highly critical things I absolutely need to take care of in the city."
"Once I am completely done securing my end, I will come right back to visit."
Because they logically couldn't be one hundred percent certain that the sprawling house wasn't actively bugged or heavily watched by federal FBI agents from the street, Arthur's words were carefully coded.
The true, underlying tactical message was crystal clear:
I absolutely need to aggressively prepare the secure logistics; the exact second I am ready, I will flawlessly finish your transport commission.
Dom might look exactly like a towering, hulking brute to the outside world, but he was actually incredibly sharp, meticulous, and highly calculating. His prominently shaved head gleamed in the morning light, making him easy to spot at night.
He offered a slow, heavy nod of absolute understanding.
"Call me Dom from now on."
Dom casually asked Arthur to switch permanently to his intimate nickname. Arthur wasn't surprised in the slightest ,he knew perfectly well that Dom was strictly short for Dominic. Only the people who were considered absolute, trusted family were ever permitted to call him that on the dangerous streets.
"All right!" Arthur nodded firmly.
He stood up smoothly, walked to the kitchen to say a warm goodbye to Mia and Letty, and confidently left Dom's quiet place.
He wasn't entirely sure whether the federal FBI was already actively assigning agents to watch his every move. After stepping out of Dom's house, Arthur walked aggressively for a long while, flawlessly utilizing his urban evasion tactics to shake any potential shadows.
Finally, satisfied the perimeter was clean, he hailed a passing yellow cab and rode away into the bustling city traffic.
Instead of heading securely back to his own quiet apartment, he headed straight for Bridger Locksmith Company.
Three highly chaotic days had completely passed since the freezing night Arthur had slipped flawlessly through the darkness and violently stolen Steve's two massive Worthington safes.
For the past forty-eight grueling hours, his massive physical and mental energy had been entirely spent on navigating the federal fallout and successfully rescuing Dom.
Consequently, he couldn't help but temporarily neglect keeping a tight, active eye on Steve's paranoid movements and Charlie Croker's meticulous planning.
He genuinely didn't care much about Charlie's immediate tactical situation, but the stunning lock-picking expert Stella Bridger was an entirely different, highly critical matter.
Arthur planned to drop by Bridger Locksmith Company first and smoothly ask if they were currently hiring technical staff.
He possessed a level-2 [Lockpicking] skill; with absolutely nothing more than a thin plastic card or a bent piece of rigid wire, he could effortlessly pop open most common commercial door locks in mere seconds.
For vastly trickier, high-security mechanisms, given the right specialized tools, Arthur could absolutely still force them open ,he just needed a tiny bit more physical time.
So he was actively going to apply for a legitimate technical job at Stella's highly respected company.
He desperately wanted to join her professional firm through completely proper, legitimate channels. Once securely inside, he could organically get incredibly close to the beautiful lock-picking expert and meticulously learn her highly classified, advanced acoustic techniques.
If, by some unforeseen complication, he was arrogantly rejected at the front door, Arthur would absolutely have to resort to finding a vastly darker, alternative way to forcibly make Stella teach him exactly what he needed to know.
As for exactly what that specific "other way" might legally entail, his highly intelligent, ruthless mind already had a flawless, lethal contingency plan.
Steve, the treacherous man who had murdered her beloved father in cold blood ,Arthur coldly figured that dropping the bastard's severed head directly onto her polished desk would make an absolutely perfect, undeniable calling card.