GRAND PRIZE WINNER FOR FICTION of the 2013 Next Generation Indie Book Awards When environmental researcher and would-be writer Teena Shostekovich returns home to find her computer files stolen, she suspects it has something to do with the "hot potato" case she's working at her job with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. But a phone call from the thief complicates things when he suggests he can help her with her writerly ambitions. Nothing gets any clearer when Detective Logan Deo comes to her door and an unusual call from her ex-husband Mack alerts her to peril that seems a world away. Meanwhile, the story of Jessie Weston, a cowgirl turned biologist, unfolds on the shores of Lake Ponder, where a dike her father built on the lakebed is bringing nothing but trouble from state officials, including Teena's boss, Steve Donneroe. As Teena and Jessie's paths veer ever closer to collision, the dangers in their lives threaten to explode beyond what either of them can understand or control, and they must work past their fears to protect the land and life they love.