She’d have time to freshen up before then, to put on her armor, so to speak.
“You eat, please. I’ll get the door.” He leaned way down to pet the dog, once again followed by the cat, she noticed with a smile.
A moment later, he opened the door.
No one spoke.
She looked over but couldn’t see past Axel’s big body blocking the doorframe.
“What the fuck areyoudoing here?” came out in a low growl.
She ate her French toast, knowing she’d need sustenance to survive this next bit of drama.
Because for whatever reason, she and Axel seemed to be magnets for it.
Eighteen
Axel stared in shock at the older brother he hadn’t seen in five years. Maksim Heller looked like a slightly shorter version of their father—and exactly like Axel save for a few superficial differences. He wore his hair back in a sophisticated short cut, was clean-shaven, and wore a suit that likely cost what Axel paid himself each month as a salary.
“Hello, brother.” Maksim greeted him in German, and Axel figured German was the best way to converse, to keep Rena out of family business she had no part of.
Unfortunately, Rena entered the living room and stopped dead.
Maksim stared with curiosity but said nothing.
“Who’s this?” she asked, comparing them, her eyes wide.
“Rena, this is my brother, Maksim. Maksim, this is Rena, my girlfriend.Häschen, would you mind giving us some space to talk?”
“Häschen?” Maksim smiled. “Appropriate.” He nodded to her and said in English, “I do like your pajamas.”
She bit her lip. “Thanks. Nice to meet you. I’ll, uh, go grab a shower.”
She darted away, and he forcibly tugged his brother inside to close the door behind him. Queen had been looking a little too hard at the open door.
His brother spotted the cat and dog and grinned. “What is going on in this country? Dogs getting cats pregnant? Rabbits looking so fetching in yellow?”
“Why the hell are you here?”
“Father said he told you we’d be coming. I decided to come earlier. I have business in the city.”
“And?”
Maksim sighed. “Might I have a cup of coffee? I think I smell some brewing.”
“Fuck. Fine.” Axel stomped to the kitchen, not caring whether Maksim followed. His brother had always been a huge pain in the ass. So polished and prissy. Always dutiful, the perfect son and heir to take over the family empire. He’d stayed behind in Germany when their mother had chosen to stay in the States with Axel. And when their father had wanted the company to branch out into other interests, it had been Maksim who’d made their first million with a car dealership that now had branches in northern Germany, France, and the United States.
Axel poured a cup of coffee into a mug and shoved it at his brother.
Maksim lifted a brow. “No milk or sugar?”
With a growl, Axel fetched him both. “Now talk fast so you can get out.”
It still hurt that he’d never had a close family, something Axel had always wanted. A brother with whom he could play, share stories, seek advice. To have each other’s backs, the way his friends and their siblings and cousins rallied around each other, family through thick and thin. But Maksim had always belonged to Jannik. Never to Ilse or Axel. Truly his father’s son, Maksim had treated their mother horribly. Not with the beatings as Jannik used to, but with an arctic silence.
“Your inheritance is waiting,” Maksim stated. “What do you plan to do about it?”
“That’s not your business.” Frankly, he had no idea.
