Page 1 of Malicious Claim

Chapter One

Blood and Betrayal

Fallon Crawford slammed his fist onto the table. The silverware jumped. "Twenty million," he growled, his eyes narrowing on his sons. "Gone. Just like that."

The dining room at the Crawford estate was a place of formality, its gleaming chandeliers casting a soft, golden light over the table. Six figures sat around it, each one maintaining a tense composure.

Kyle's brow furrowed. "We had men at the docks. It should've been secure."

Hunter's fingers drummed impatiently. "Obviously not secure enough if the feds showed up."

Leila said nothing as she watched them. A bad feeling was building in her gut. They were supposed to handle this. They were supposed to guarantee success.

Fallon leaned back in his chair. "How did a convoy of our trucks get intercepted without a single warning?"

"It was supposed to be clean," Kyle said, his voice tight. "We paid off the authorities in the port, had our men in place."

"Someone tipped them off," Travis said, his voice colder than the coldest winter. "Someone flipped and snitched on us to the feds."

Hunter sneered. "That rat Mateo. He's been acting strange ever since his kid was born. Feds must've used that to grill him, threatened to take his daughter, or promised him a reduced sentence.”

“Mateo might have broken the silence code,” Kyle retorted, “but who chose the route? Who trusted the new broker?” His accusing gaze landed on Travis.

The tension was strong. Travis’s jaw tightened. “The route was vetted. The broker was your man, Kyle.”

Leila’s eyes flicked from one brother to the next. “You two are so quick to blame each other, you’re missing the point.”

Kyle snorted. “Oh, so now you’ve got the answers, Leila?”

Hunter leaned forward, his smirk sharp. "Why don't you stick to your girly stuff, sis? Let the men handle business."

Dragging her eyes away from the golden-coated chair she had found a brief fascination with, she raised her head to Kyle and leaned forward.

"So?" She shrugged to stress her nonchalance.

Kyle hissed, his hands forming a fist. "You little br—"

"I think that's enough." The baritone voice of the patriarch was enough to drown a shark, even in its subtlety but not for Leila.

To her, there was only one upside to being the only girl, who happened also to be the last child. She had her father wrapped around her fingers, and she was never shy to use that fact to her advantage.

Wearing a pout and googly eyes, she turned to him. "But daddy, he started it! I was only trying to drop my own thoughts about the situation!" She said, in her little girl voice.

Fallon Crawford looked at his daughter, his angry face instantly filled with a smile. Anyone watching would hardly believe it was the same man that made men considered kings grovel at his feet. He was a large man in every sense of the word. Not just because of his towering height that rivaled the giants of biblical times.

His hair, darker than the shadows of the night, was the only feature that dampened the uncanny resemblance his daughter had with him. Her fiery red hair was all her mother's.

Every other thing she took from him. From her height to that smart mouth of hers. It didn't end there. She couldn't stop without snatching that braveness of his, of course.

Every time Fallon looked at her, his heart swelled with pride. He considered himself a master of invention. Be it new ways to gun down a rival or clever plots to get money out of the sink. But in his own words, Leila Crawford was his greatest invention.

"You two can bicker later, no fights on the dining table. I need to know who tipped off my business." He finally said.

Leila's face fell while her brothers chuckled unintentionally. "That didn't go the way you planned, huh?” Hunter mocked. He was the third child with eyes like a predator, hence the name.

"Hunter," Travis called. He was the one that looked like their mother. Quiet and aloof. It always felt like he was a thousand miles away, a silent killer, as Jenner would describe him.

Hunter, not the one to be casually dismissed, moved his lips to speak when Jenner's hands hushed him. "Funs over, boys. You," she pointed to Kyle. "You should lead by example. Now apologize to your little sister and focus on the matter on ground.”

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