[s2e6] Hold What You Got Today

"To the bank. To the state. To whoever's buying up the bottom half of this county this week. Does it matter?"

The neon sign above the radiator shop buzzed with a low, steady frequency that vibrated right through Miller’s boots. The sign read Holloway & Son , though the son had been buried in a dry-county cemetery since ninety-four, and Holloway himself couldn't grip a wrench no more without his knuckles locking up like old brakes. [S2E6] Hold What You Got

Miller didn’t care about the history. He only cared about the grease-stained ledger sitting on the desk between them. "To the bank

Holloway finally looked down at the pouch. He knew what was in it. It was the payout from the three-ton haul they’d run across the state line two nights ago—the one where the tires were screaming and the engine block was glowing cherry red in the dark. It was supposed to be the money that cleared the books. "You're short," Holloway stated. Does it matter

"The boy didn't come back," Holloway said, his voice sounding like gravel being turned with a spade. He didn't look at Miller. He looked at the window, where the rain was just starting to turn the red clay outside into a slick, impassable soup. "Left his truck. Left his tools. Left the bay door unlocked."

"I'm exactly what the ticket said." Miller leaned back, his synthetic jacket crinkling. He looked tired. Not the kind of tired a night of sleep fixes, but the kind that gets down into the marrow and stays there. "You want to hold what you got, Holloway? Then you stop looking at what you lost. This is the pile. This is the whole damn stack. You either lock it in the floor safe or you let the wind take it. I'm done holding the bag."

"We used to have roads that didn't have cameras every two miles," Miller snapped. He stood up, the chair legs scraping hard against the concrete floor. He went to the door and looked out at the dark, falling rain. "The world got small, Holloway. There ain't no more running room. You hold onto the square inch you're standing on, or you get pushed into the ditch. That's the only deal left on the board."