Rulers of Deception

When Empires Fall
had me hooked from the first page. Katie Jennings does a great job of capturing my imagination and keeping my attention from beginning to end. I felt as though I was a friend of the Vasser family and wanted to visit the hotel. I was so disappointed to get to the last page and not know what happens next. I am looking forward to the next book in this series. Katie Jennings has a five star book that could easily become an award winning movie. Don’t pass this one up—it is a true winner.

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Readers’ Favorite
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I enjoyed
When Empires Fall
, the fact that you don’t know what will happen, you don’t know who to love and who to hate, and that it is filled with so much drama. The author did a wonderful job with the flow of the story.

- Christina’s Book Review -

This book has it all—murder, intrigue, and romance. Just as in all the great soaps, I was not ready for this episode to be over. I can’t wait to get my hands on the next book. I hope that she deals with Linc and his Louisiana home more.

- Voracious Reader -

Jennings’ writing is excellent, the formatting attractive, and the pacing spot on. I found myself drawn into their world, an unwitting player in the drama of their lives. The story carried me along all the way to its dramatic conclusion. I loved this story and look forward to more from this wonderful author. Well done!

- Richard C. Hale, author of “Near Sighted” -

...a fabulous read. I was involved from the first word to the very last, staying up late into the night. I really wanted to know what happened but I hated getting to the end and leaving my Vasser friends, but I can only hope that the saga continues in many more books. Katie Jennings has written a story that is real, containing all of the good and bad of life in a large and influential family. She made the characters come alive and I laughed and cried along with them.
Rise of the Notorious
will quickly find its way to the top of the best seller list and remain there for many weeks and could easily become the best movie of the year. If you are a fan of a saga with strong family bonds, romance, suspense, passion, deception, betrayal and so on, you must read this book.
Rise of the Notorious
is a hands down winner and a must read book.

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Readers’ Favorite
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The writing is superb and not only captures the imagination but also gives you a strong desire to master writing as well as Jennings. The protagonist, Madison, is the perfect female role model, confronting her failures and drawing on her strengths to propel her forward. Beautiful, cunning and undeniably wicked she is the main hook of the story, drawing in the reader to her extremely dangerous life. Jennings has succeeded in creating a world so complicated and—of course—notorious that it offers the perfect escape, while simultaneously reflecting true life in a way that makes you reflect upon your own.

- Elizabeth Wright, reviewer -

Prologue quotation written by William Shakespeare,
Othello

Rulers of Deception

Copyright © 2014 Katie Jennings

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher.

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published by

Sapphire Royale Publishing

Print Edition ISBN Numbers

ISBN-13: 978-0692217498

ISBN-10: 0692217495

To the fans of The Vasser Legacy...

I wrote this book for you.

T
he rambling estate was north of Bogotá and just south of Hell. Built with bloodstained money and pure white powder, it was a place where corrupt men went to gamble with their lives. Men with an insatiable hunger for adventure, for wealth. For power.

It wasn’t the power that drew Wyatt Bailey, but he’d take the money and he sure as hell enjoyed the adventure—even if it had drawn him into a snake pit alive with hissing vipers. What the vipers intended to do with him, he couldn’t say. He had no choice but to play out the cards and see where the chips fell. Hopefully, the chips landed on stacks of money and not in a sticky pool of his own blood.

Air sweet with the scent of
aguardiente
liquor and thick with smoke hung over the Spanish plastered dining room like a wet shroud. It choked the life out of those present, making throats close up and sweat bead on foreheads. The clear liquid quenched some of the thirst, but barely. A better distraction was in the coke dust that lay in a fine film over everything. The oak wood table, the slippery playing cards, the glass tumblers lined with fingerprints and slick with liquor. In the hazy, dim light of the candlelit chandelier, all that mattered was the stacks of chips and cards.

Wyatt lifted his glass, eyeing the man across the table over the rim. It was a calculated move, one intended to establish both confidence and arrogance. Only the subtle combination of the two would get him and his partner out alive.

The man returned his stare pointedly. He was near forty, dressed in a black sleeveless shirt and slacks, built with muscle that rippled beneath copper skin coated with sweat. Jade eyes, intense and direct, held Wyatt’s from under dark brows. Slick black hair gave the man a distinctly reptilian appearance, as did the hard, angular lines of his long face. When his mouth lifted at the right corner, Wyatt fully expected to see a snake’s tongue slither out from between his lips.

“What brings you to South America,
Señor
Bailey?” the man inquired, lowering his eyes and swapping out two cards with ones from the deck. His accent-flavored voice held a distinct rasp, much like the hiss of a serpent.

Wyatt took the moment’s reprieve from the man’s intense stare to compose himself. “It’s all about the adventure, Frankie. I’ve always said I’d live a short life. Might as well fill it with as much fun as I can.”