The phone continued to ring.
Hauck just sat there staring at Warren.
His brother just shook his head. “I told you to take the job. I tried to get you away from it, Ty. God damn it! I did everything I could.” His gaze was hollow and, maybe for the first time in his whole life, completely guileless. Sincere. “I tried to warn you. Everyone tried to warn you, Ty. Why couldn’t you just take the fucking job?”
“What have you gotten yourself into, Warren?”
His brother slammed his fist against the floor. “You stubborn, stupid, pigheaded shit!”
The ringing stopped. Hauck just continued to look at him. The anger was now gone. His gaze grew glassy with tears.
“I’m your brother.” Hauck shook his head. “What the hell have you become?”
“What have I become?” Warren rubbed his swollen lip and glared at him. “I am what I’ve always been, Ty. You think I’m so different from every other fucking guy in this world. Just ’cause it doesn’t fit into your neat little view of the world.
“You know what I wanted. I wanted to be in that room with the big boys. In the same boardrooms, in their clubs. You think we’re a part of that world, coming where we came from? So I did what I always wanted, Ty. I found my way in the room. My way. I rubbed my hands a little bit in the dirt.”
“In the dirt? You got filth all over you, Warren. I’m your brother.”
“And I tried to protect you, goddamn it! I did! Just like at the lake. Don’t look at me like I’m some kind of monster. So what are you going to do, arrest me?” He put out his wrists. “You going to arrest me for that, Ty?”
“You think you won’t be next?” Hauck looked at him. “You think they won’t kill you just like they killed Pacello? Just like they tried to do to me? You think I can just let you walk out of here? That things are going to somehow find their way back to normal?”
“No…” Warren sank his head back against the wall and shook it from side to side. “I know things will never go back to normal, Ty. You just have to believe me. Foley, that job, all I was trying to do was just protect you. To give you a way out. I wish I could turn back the clock. I wish I could’ve been a better brother. I wish I could’ve been a better husband to Ginny, a dad to my kids. I wish I could be a lot of things, Ty…
“But I am who I am. There’s no big white line you cross, Ty. I’ve always been the same person who you came upon when you opened that door in the basement room. I do favors for people. I smooth things out. I get things done. And sometimes, these things…” He shrugged sullenly. “Sometimes they just get larger, Ty. That’s all. All I tried to do was get you out.”
“They’re gonna kill you, Warren. Casey, Raines…Your friends. For whatever they’re hiding. Just like Pacello. They’re gonna tie you to all their dirty work and not let you walk away.”
“You know me, guy. I always find a way…”
“Not anymore,” Hauck said. “And there’s Ginny. Kyle and Sarah.”
“You just don’t understand, Ty…” Warren stared at him. “There’s no way I’m going to spend the rest of my life in jail.”
Hauck shook his head. “You think I can just walk out of here now, Warren? And things are just going to pick up where they left off?”
“So what are you going to do? Slap the cuffs on me? Take me in? On what grounds? Because I have ties to some influential friends? Because Tom Foley is on my speed dial? None of it ties me to shit. I’m a lawyer, Ty, remember? Go ahead, tell me the charge.”
Hauck knew there was no charge. “They’ll kill you too, Warren.”
“Go on, get out of here,” Warren said, “leave me alone…” His eyes regained a measure of composure. “I wasn’t lying, you know…when I said those things at your house. I did try to protect you. I want you to believe me on that. I just couldn’t get it done. You’re a good man, Ty. Just let me be who I am. Just know, nothing was ever supposed to happen to you. That was always a part of the deal. That was the basis for everything. I swear.”
“What’s this all about, Warren?”
“What is it ever about?” He sniffed. “It’s all about power, Ty.”
Politics. Casey. “Everything’s always about power, Warren.”
“No.” His brother smiled. “Not that kind of power…” There was a look in his eye, both fraternal and resigned. “Read the papers. It’s everywhere. It’s right in front of you. Now get out. Please. I’m sorry. I’m sorry to have dragged you into this, Ty. I’m sorry to disappoint you.”
“If I leave here, I can’t help you, Warren.”
Warren smiled at him. “Since when have you ever been able to help me, Ty?”
Hauck got up. His brother wiped the blood and mucus off his face. Hauck left him leaning against the wall.