In a world where telepaths haunt poker tables and emotion moves betting lines, Wade Sanders makes his living knowing the difference between what people believe and what is true.

Then Dominic Rinaldi gives him an impossible assignment.

Three hopeless horses—Copper Halo, Snowmelt, and Mercy Bell—must finish first, second, and third in the Kentucky Derby. Wade knows they cannot win. He also knows what happens to people who disappoint Rinaldi.

Watched by Marnie Dern, Rinaldi’s brilliant and dangerously unreadable operative, Wade sets out to fix the Derby without touching a horse, bribing a jockey, or telling a single lie. His only tools are a legal wager, a man incapable of keeping a secret, and a city eager to mistake rumor for revelation.

As thousands of bettors chase the promise of inside information, the odds begin to move—and Wade’s trap closes around the one man powerful enough to destroy him.