Miami, 1909. In a city built on debts and deception, Jerome “Redbone” Blake collects debts with his fists in Colored Town—until a desperate gambler trades his daughter to settle his losses. But Althea Hayes is nobody’s property. Her keen mind sees angles Jerome missed and together they cook up the boldest con Miami has ever seen: they forge a...

In 1909 Miami, Jerome Blake’s weekly rounds for Big Jim barely keep him fed. When a simple collection spirals into a moral reckoning, Jerome and his partner bolt for Tampa’s booming bolita houses—where numbers buy protection and a man’s worth is measured in cash.

There he meets Marty Hooker, who runs the city’s underworld with ledgers,...