Anne Riley

Liam Scofield has an idea, and it's a good one. It is 1991. Liam is the president and CEO of Windwear, a flourishing hiking boot company located in Portland, Oregon. His growing company is planning to go public, and in anticipation of future growth, he has developed an idea for a new computer program to link his systems to those of his customers and suppliers. Always one to evaluate an idea using expert opinions, Liam seeks out Cara Larson, a systems analyst working at the technology giant, Pyramid, to assess the quality of this one. Cara disagrees with Liam. It's not a good idea, she tells him, it's a great one. She thinks it has the potential to become a saleable product and earn Windwear millions of dollars. Cara's team begins working on the software, named Aerie, and after early initial success, runs into problems that have little to do with the complexities of technology. It seems Cara's boss, Peter Whittington, thinks Aerie would be wasted on Windwear. He devises his own plans for the software and recruits Cara to aid him in his efforts. Then there's Lauren Janelle, Windwear's beautiful in-house attorney. She has designs on . . . well, let's just say she has designs on many of Liam's . . . assets. It's not long before Cara has to make difficult choices about how to proceed with the Aerie project. As Cara navigates her way through sticky ethical issues, she finds her respect for Liam growing into something more complicated and altogether unsettling. Unfortunately, Cara's efforts to help Windwear take an unexpected turn. Where greed is involved, even good deeds can be manipulated, and Liam suddenly finds himself competing with Cara to be the first to bring Aerie to market. It will prove to be a painful two-front battle for Liam. First, and quite inconveniently, he has fallen in love with his competition. Second, and far more problematic for the future of Windwear, he's fighting the wrong enemy.

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