The Magic of the Money
Arthur absolutely wasn't lying about his dire financial situation; he currently had less than ten thousand dollars in liquid cash to his name.
Not too long ago, operating under the heavy cover of a freezing, torrential downpour, he had flawlessly stolen two massive safes directly from Steve's heavily fortified luxury villa.
Those heavy, military-grade vaults should securely hold the nearly one-ton hoard of pure gold bars that the treacherous Steve had violently skimmed for himself.
But for the immediate moment, Arthur absolutely couldn't open those safes without permanently triggering their internal glass relockers. They sat heavily inside his invisible dimensional void, a massive fortune rendered completely useless for the time being. And the meager stack of cash he currently had on hand definitely wasn't enough to legally maneuver Dom and the others out of their massive federal trouble.
After listening to his cold, calculated breakdown of the grim financial reality, the heavy tension in Mia's slender shoulders surprisingly relaxed. She offered a soft, hopeful smile.
"Will three hundred thousand dollars cover it?" she asked, her amber eyes shining with a sudden, desperate light.
Arthur's dark eyes widened a fraction in genuine, unfiltered surprise. Her big brother was the absolute most famous driver on the entire West Coast and a perennial, undisputed champion of the highly illegal underground street races.
And for several highly lucrative years now, Dom had successfully led a tight-knit crew of ruthless hijackers.
Out on the winding, desolate California highways, they aggressively hijacked pricey consumer electronics shipped out by massive Silicon Valley tech giants.
Over those chaotic, adrenaline-fueled years, they had raked in at least a staggering hundred million dollars in untraceable, illicit gains.
Of that massive, ill-gotten fortune, more than twenty million had ended up directly in Dom's own calloused hands.
Most of that heavy cash went straight into aggressively modifying high-performance cars, buying into local auto shops, and keeping up a lavish, chaotic lifestyle filled with endless parties and expensive imported beer.
But as Dom's only sister, Mia had naturally received plenty of generous pocket money from him over the years.
The massive allowance he gave his sole sister far exceeded exactly what most of her ordinary peers ever saw in their entire young lives.
And she had meticulously, carefully saved almost all of it.
Unlike most girls her age in this sprawling, superficial city, she wasn't blindly obsessed with brand-name makeup, expensive jewelry, designer clothes, or high-end luxury handbags.
And so, sitting quietly in a secure bank account, she had carefully piled up more than three hundred thousand dollars in cold, hard cash.
Arthur looked at her in profound surprise he absolutely hadn't realized the terrified, beautiful girl sitting right in front of him was secretly a little millionaire.
He didn't waste a single moment envying her hidden wealth or second-guessing her unexpected resources. His highly intelligent mind rapidly shifted back to the tactical reality of the streets.
He simply offered a firm, reassuring nod.
"Hiring a tough, well-known defense lawyer will run about thirty to fifty thousand dollars right off the bat," Arthur explained smoothly, his voice a low, steady rumble that anchored the room.
"If the FBI haven't aggressively cracked them in the interrogation rooms and found hard, physical evidence, the absolute worst they can be officially charged with right now is racing illegally and dangerous vehicle modifications."
He leaned forward, his broad shoulders projecting absolute, unwavering confidence. "Bail should be set around thirty thousand dollars each."
"Three hundred grand should be more than enough to handle everything."
Arthur had actually looked deeply into this specific legal stuff before, strictly out of calculated necessity, so he knew the federal and state basics flawlessly.
Seeing him lay the complicated legal reality out so clearly and flawlessly come up with a highly actionable rescue plan so incredibly fast Mia finally felt the heavy, suffocating anxiety that had violently gnawed at her for a full day start to fade.
"So exactly when do we hire the lawyer?" Mia asked, leaning slightly closer.
Arthur could clearly see the deep, lingering worry etched onto her beautiful face; she desperately wanted her brother completely out of federal custody as soon as humanly possible.
Looking closer in the dim light of the living room, he noticed her bloodshot eyes and the faint, bruised dark circles beneath them clear, undeniable physical signs she hadn't slept well in two grueling days.
A rare, faint pang of genuine sympathy tightened his chest at the exhausted sight.
He pulled her gently into his muscular arms again and pressed a soft, reassuring peck to her pale cheek.
"Leave absolutely everything to me," Arthur murmured, his tone radiating total control.
"In a bit, I will go with you to securely get the money, then you stay right here at home and get some deep rest."
"I will find the absolute best lawyer in the city and handle everything perfectly."
"If things go smoothly on the legal end, Dom and the others should be walking out on bail by tomorrow afternoon at the absolute latest."
Mia was still incredibly young and deeply trusting of the man who had sheltered her; it absolutely never crossed her exhausted mind that Arthur might aggressively run off with her massive cash reserves.
She only hesitated slightly, desperately wanting to tag along to ensure her brother's safe release.
After some gentle, highly persuasive reasoning from Arthur, she finally agreed to go home and rest her shattered nerves.
Together, they left the secure apartment and returned quickly to the familiar house she shared with Dom.
Once Arthur had the heavy bank card holding absolutely all of her life savings securely in his tactical jacket, he patted her soft hand with a highly confident smile.
"Rest easy here at home. I will come back tonight to keep you safe and keep you company though it might be a bit late."
"This afternoon, I will aggressively line up a top-tier lawyer and try to get him to see Dom and the others tonight, just so they are absolutely all on the exact same page."
"We absolutely cannot let anyone crack under heavy federal interrogation."
Knowing exactly how tight their operational timeline was, Mia nodded heavily and reluctantly saw him off at the door, locking the deadbolt securely exactly as he had strictly instructed.
Arthur spent the entire, sweltering afternoon running aggressively around the sprawling city.
Lately, his calculated actions might be turning him into a bit of a manipulative scoundrel when it came to beautiful women, but he absolutely hadn't sunk so incredibly low as to swindle them out of their desperate survival money their bodies and their loyal hearts were an entirely different, highly enjoyable matter.
He pulled out his secure burner phone and directly called the quirky hacker Lyle. He aggressively asked him to find the specific defense lawyer with the absolute highest win-rate and the biggest, most notorious pain-in-the-ass reputation in all of Los Angeles.
Over the past grueling half-month, Arthur had pretty much gotten incredibly chummy with Charlie Croker's ace hacker, Lyle.
He would casually drop by Lyle's cluttered, tech-filled place every few days, patiently listening to the quirky guy brag endlessly about exactly how insanely good he had been with complex computer networks back in college.
While he was politely at it, Arthur would seamlessly milk Lyle for absolutely every single programming trick and advanced application tip he could possibly get his hands on, rapidly leveling up his own technical skills.
Lyle was a massive chatterbox and a complete, isolated shut-in to boot; under Arthur's highly deliberate, calculated flattery, he dispensed highly classified advice freely and gradually began treating the young, handsome mechanic exactly like a trusted friend.
So when Arthur made a seemingly small, urgent legal request…
The computer-savvy Lyle ran a blindingly quick, highly encrypted search online and picked out an absolutely perfect target for him in mere minutes.
Scott Lyman, a ruthless Irish-American defense lawyer.
He was one of the absolute most notorious, highly paid star attorneys in all of Los Angeles, and also the one with the undeniably highest court win rate in the entire state.
Scott had absolutely never heard of fundamental fairness or moral justice, and he genuinely didn't give a single damn about the dignity of the law or any ethical bottom line.
In Scott's cold, calculating eyes, exactly as long as the heavy money showed up in full, he could miraculously turn the guilty into the innocent.
He had once even successfully bailed out a violent, cold-blooded murderer by aggressively exploiting obscure loopholes in U.S. law with consummate, terrifying skill.
"Sir, I will absolutely prove to you that your hundred grand will definitely not be wasted."
Arthur walked confidently into Scott Lyman's lavish, high-end law firm. The air inside smelled heavily of polished mahogany and expensive cologne, a perfect sanctuary for a legal shark. Arthur flawlessly let the heavy stacks of cold cash pave his way right past the receptionist.
Without a single prior appointment, he succeeded in instantly hiring this notorious, highly expensive attorney.
Lyman was officially retained to serve exactly as Dom's private legal counsel along directly with representing the three equally unlucky, loyal underlings who had been violently arrested on the asphalt.
Spurred aggressively by the massive stack of a hundred thousand dollars in pure cash, Attorney Scott Lyman gave Arthur a genuine, highly professional eye-opener.
With just a few sharp, authoritative phone calls from his mahogany desk, he flawlessly confirmed that Dom and his company were currently being securely held at the main Los Angeles Police Department holding cells, absolutely not at the heavily fortified FBI Los Angeles Field Office.
What came next was much, much simpler.
Scott promptly grabbed his expensive leather briefcase and drove Arthur directly over to the massive Los Angeles Police Department building in his sleek, luxury sedan.
Because he absolutely wasn't a licensed lawyer or a direct family member, Arthur legally couldn't physically go back to see Dom and the others in the holding cells for now.
But entirely as their highly paid private attorney, Scott Lyman easily bypassed the police bureaucracy and could see them immediately.
Arthur had him meticulously pass along a few extremely cryptic, highly tactical messages directly to Dom and his loyal company, ensuring they knew exactly what fake legal story to stubbornly stick to.
As a direct result of this flawless preparation, Arthur only had to wait patiently outside the busy police station for a little over a single hour.
Before long, he saw Scott Lyman stroll confidently out through the heavy glass doors, wearing a relaxed, highly satisfied smile on his face.
"Sir, I told you completely your massive amount of money will absolutely not be wasted today."
"Your legal commission is completely successful."
"Tomorrow afternoon, you can confidently come back here to fully pay the bondsman and completely process the physical bail release."
"Except specifically for Mr. Toretto, who absolutely needs a higher bond of fifty thousand dollars, the other three men only require thirty thousand dollars each to walk free."
Scott Lyman paused, adjusting his expensive silk tie, a highly conspiratorial gleam appearing in his sharp eyes.
"And, exactly seeing as our very first, highly lucrative collaboration has been so incredibly pleasant…"
"Let me generously give you one more piece of highly critical, inside news."
"Mr. Toretto and his entire company seem to currently be under an active, heavy FBI review as well."
"So exactly after they are successfully bailed out this time around…"
"They will absolutely be temporarily, legally barred from leaving the city limits of Los Angeles and will strictly have to physically check in with the LAPD every single twenty-four hours for a while."
"I fully trust you completely understand exactly what I mean—please arrange their upcoming affairs properly."
Watching the officially stamped, highly coveted bail-application papers fluttering lightly in Scott Lyman's manicured hand, Arthur gained a profound, fresh appreciation for both the deeply flawed U.S. legal system and the mighty, absolute magic of cold U.S. dollars.