Returning
"Let's go back!"
On the bright, sunlit morning of the tenth day at the secluded Bridger family farm, Stella Bridger finished the incredibly delicious, aromatic breakfast Arthur had flawlessly prepared for her.
She stood up gracefully of her own accord, gathered the empty plates, and began washing the dishes in the rusted farmhouse sink.
Immediately afterward, she dried her damp hands on a cotton towel, turned to face Arthur, and firmly made the sudden suggestion.
In the absolute blink of an eye, from the terrifying morning Stella was violently kidnapped off the streets by Steve's heavily armed mercenaries, to being miraculously rescued by Arthur and then fleeing into the shadows to hide in this isolated family farm far from Los Angeles,
More than ten full, quiet days had already passed!
For a dedicated, undisputed workaholic exactly like Stella, not going into her professional office for more than a week and a half was absolutely, fundamentally unbearable.
Stella now felt deeply, physically uncomfortable all over.
She constantly worried whether her highly successful Bridger Locksmith Company would face sudden, violent retaliation from the paranoid Steve. She also genuinely didn't know exactly how Charlie Croker and the rest of the surviving crew were doing after that chaotic, explosive night at the heavily fortified villa.
Of course, Stella was deeply, stubbornly unwilling to openly admit the other, highly personal truth.
That another massive, underlying reason she was so incredibly eager to permanently leave this quiet farm and immediately return to her busy work,
Was that her proud, highly intelligent mind completely couldn't accept the devastating, undeniable fact that her legendary, lifelong Lockpicking talent was far, far inferior to Arthur's terrifying, supernatural learning speed.
Arthur looked at Stella calmly, his dark, calculating eyes completely unreadable. He nodded slowly in understanding, but then firmly shook his handsome head.
"I am absolutely leaving the farm today. But Stella, you critically need to stay securely hidden right here a bit longer."
Stella's beautiful, delicate brows immediately furrowed in deep frustration, and her bright, emerald-like eyes, which seemed to possess a profound, soul-stirring power, flashed with defiance.
"Why exactly?" she asked, her tone carrying a heavy trace of genuine unhappiness.
"I will go aggressively investigate the exact tactical situation with Steve first," Arthur explained, his low, commanding voice radiating absolute authority. "I will absolutely only feel comfortable letting you go back to the city once I have flawlessly ensured your immediate safety."
Stella shook her head stubbornly.
"I will go back directly with you!"
Previously, when he had first rescued her, she absolutely hadn't been very familiar with Arthur, and his plan to hide her was just a temporary, desperate disappearance for her safety.
So Stella could logically, easily accept it!
But now, exactly after spending ten or so quiet, uninterrupted days living closely together in the isolated farmhouse,
Stella had already become incredibly, intimately well-acquainted with Arthur!
Regarding this imposing, highly capable young man who was ruggedly handsome, possessed a heartbreakingly tragic background of being completely orphaned, was fiercely hardworking and ambitious, and commanded various, terrifying life skills,
Stella undeniably felt deep sympathy, but she also harbored a massive, undeniable amount of genuine goodwill and profound affection toward him.
"I absolutely cannot let you go actively take lethal risks completely alone in the city!" Stella insisted, her voice trembling slightly with raw emotion. "Especially since it is entirely, directly for my sake!"
Arthur perfectly knew that Stella meant incredibly well.
But his cold, analytical mind absolutely still couldn't agree to the dangerous compromise!
He smoothly wiped the faint, reassuring smile from his handsome face and looked directly at Stella with a completely serious, uncompromising expression.
"Do not be foolishly stubborn about this, Stella."
"With my specific, highly lethal skills and flawless reconnaissance abilities, actively approaching Steve's fortified luxury villa ,or even aggressively sneaking right back inside the compound ,isn't difficult for me in the slightest."
"I will personally go check out the perimeter of your locksmith company and the exact area near your private residence to meticulously make sure absolutely no one is actively watching the buildings."
"I will absolutely only feel tactically comfortable letting you safely go back once I have flawlessly confirmed the streets are clear."
Arthur stepped closer, his broad shoulders casting a shadow over her. "Although I have only directly dealt with the treacherous Steve twice, according to the deep intelligence I have aggressively gathered on the streets, he is an absolutely ruthless, sociopathic guy."
"The absolute only reason he didn't violently kill you back then was strictly because he desperately wanted to safely use you as live bait to aggressively lure out Charlie and the others, who he mistakenly, arrogantly thought had stolen his mountain of gold."
The suffocating, terrifying memories of her brutal kidnapping by Steve during those two agonizing days suddenly flashed violently through Stella's mind, and her pale expression immediately became deeply uneasy.
Although she absolutely hadn't been physically assaulted and her life hadn't been immediately terminated, Stella had indeed personally, intimately experienced Steve's sadistic, undeniable talent for violently tormenting people.
With a world-class beauty tied helplessly right in front of him, his cold mind hadn't even thought about laying a single romantic finger on her.
Instead, he violently tied Stella up with thick, unforgiving ropes and cruelly starved her for two agonizing days, only forcefully giving her a few meager cups of cold water and absolutely not a single bite of solid food.
Furthermore, during those two grueling days, Steve didn't generously give her any basic freedom of movement at all.
Even her most basic, humiliating physiological needs had to be agonizingly dealt with while she was aggressively tied to the heavy wooden chair.
One could easily, vividly imagine exactly how terrible and profoundly degrading all of this was for a proud, highly educated woman.
Regardless of her bravery, Stella logically felt that those two dark days she was violently kidnapped by Steve were truly, undeniably worse than death.
Suddenly, a cold shiver ran violently down her spine, and she shuddered involuntarily.
"Then, "
Seeing that she was just about to anxiously speak again, Arthur immediately, smoothly stopped Stella.
"I will absolutely be back safely before tonight. No matter exactly what happens out there, I firmly promise I absolutely won't stop you from properly going back to the city after tomorrow."
Seeing his absolute, unwavering attitude and sensing the heavy, protective intent in his low voice, Stella hesitated for a tense moment before finally nodding heavily. "Alright then!"
Having finally flawlessly convinced her to stay put, Arthur rested comfortably for a short, quiet while.
Then, Arthur strapped on his dark tactical gear, set off, and began his rapid, aggressive return to the sprawling metropolis of Los Angeles.
He rode the heavy motorcycle incredibly fast, the massive engine roaring as he tore down the asphalt, and over an hour later, he successfully, flawlessly crossed back within the dense city limits of Los Angeles.
Since it was significantly closer to the bustling city center, Arthur aggressively went to scout Stella's Bridger Locksmith Company first.
Seeing from the shadows that absolutely everything at the commercial company was operating perfectly normally, with the exact same female receptionist still nervously working her usual front desk shifts,
Arthur meticulously checked the immediate vicinity of the busy street and found absolutely no suspicious vehicles or heavily armed mercenaries monitoring the front doors.
Only then did he smoothly slip the bike into gear and aggressively drive toward Steve's heavily fortified luxury villa.
During the few quiet days the massive motorcycle had been securely parked at the isolated farm, Arthur had meticulously repainted the chassis and given the heavy machine a completely new, untraceable matte finish.
As for the metal license plate, he had naturally, flawlessly swapped it out for a highly realistic, untraceable fake one.
He had previously spent some valuable time at Old Parker's dusty repair shop and actively helped the old mechanic with some highly complex, private Driving modification jobs.
Through those deep underworld connections, he naturally knew some obscure places to securely order custom fake plates, and strictly for tactical convenience, he had aggressively ordered a dozen or so fake motorcycle plates to seamlessly carry with him in his private space.
The roaring motorcycle soon arrived near the perimeter of Steve's sprawling luxury villa, but exactly what Arthur saw was completely beyond his initial, tactical expectations.
Steve's massive, heavily fortified villa had already been completely cordoned off with miles of yellow LAPD police tape.
Even the bulletproof guard booth that used to sit securely outside the main gates on 24-hour active duty had been entirely dismantled and hauled away by federal investigators.
The luxury villa's imposing main gate and the heavy, front perimeter concrete wall had suffered massive, catastrophic collapses.
Looking intensely at the violently upturned earth and the blackened scorch marks on the shattered concrete, it absolutely wasn't hard for Arthur's sharp eyes to clearly see that heavy explosives had undeniably been detonated right there.
That chaotic night, it absolutely couldn't have been strictly just the single fragmentation grenade I threw at the cliff edge, Arthur analyzed silently, his dark eyes narrowing under his tinted visor.
Did Charlie Croker and his desperate group also aggressively use heavy explosives here at Steve's main gate?
Good grief, looking at this massive crater, it absolutely looks like the raw explosive power wasn't small either.
Arthur vividly remembered that exactly when he was rapidly escaping with the bound Stella that night,
His supernaturally enhanced hearing had vaguely, undeniably heard Charlie frantically, aggressively calling out Stella's name over the chaotic gunfire.
Charlie and his elite group had also desperately gone to Steve's heavily armed villa that night, actively wanting to violently rescue Stella.
Arthur naturally knew perfectly well that this was the case!
After all, if Charlie and the others absolutely hadn't aggressively drawn away the vast majority of Steve's mercenary attention at the front gate, it would have been tactically impossible for him to flawlessly shoot out the main power box with his crossbow and successfully take the golden opportunity to rescue Stella from the kitchen.
But Arthur absolutely didn't logically know exactly what had violently happened immediately after that.
From the massive state of structural destruction at the front of the villa, his highly intelligent mind had already begun to realize something grim.
I am deeply afraid that on that exact same night, directly after I flawlessly rescued Stella, Charlie and his elite group caused quite a massive, bloody scene here at Steve's compound.
Arthur sat perfectly still on his idling bike and stared intensely at the ruined villa for a long while. After flawlessly confirming with his enhanced senses that absolutely no one should be actively living there anymore, he quietly slipped away.
He quickly, stealthily went down to the rocky bottom of the treacherous cliff directly behind the ruined villa.
After a careful, microscopic inspection of the rock face,
Arthur discovered that the heavy steel climbing pitons he had previously, violently driven into the sheer cliff had all been entirely removed; not a single one remained lodged in the stone.
Exactly what the hell violently happened after we aggressively left that night?
Completely filled with deep tactical doubt, Arthur aggressively turned the heavy motorcycle around and drove straight toward Stella's private apartment building in the city.
A short, rapid while later, exactly after arriving at her quiet neighborhood,
He performed a highly careful, meticulous check of the entire street and flawlessly confirmed absolutely no armed mercenaries were actively watching the perimeter.
Only then did Arthur quietly, smoothly approach her stainless steel mailbox. Finding the narrow slot completely empty,
He thought for a calculated moment and smoothly pulled out a rigid piece of thin metal wire directly from his invisible private space.
Easily, flawlessly utilizing his LV5[Lockpicking] skill, he picked the heavy deadbolt to Stella's apartment door in less than a second and slipped silently inside the dark hallway.
The absolute first thing his sharp eyes saw scattered haphazardly on the hardwood floor directly behind the heavy apartment door, were a dozen or so white, letter-like envelopes.