Obviously, no one who'd told him that shit had ever been here. In the two years since John Marshall had first found that accursedgolden rock at Sutter...s Mill, George had barely made enough to makeends meet. And now they were talking statehood. For what he paidfor a single loaf of bread, he could have fed himself for a week backhome and the work would have been a hell of a lot easier. Home he thought. I'll never think of this damn place as home. And even worse, there weren't many women - maybe. He rubbed his hand along his face andthey too were not the hands he had used in this life. John's hands werenow were slender and petite made for the most delicate attention. Hegasped as a girly sound escaped those lips. It was something that wouldcome out of the mouth of a child yet conversely it was sultry. He slumped and passed out.The fog lifted hours later. Opening his eyes, he could see little toespeeking at the end of slender legs. They were lovely legs, hairless andcurved at the calf.. “Yes, I do,” I said. “But for you, it is about to get hotter. Now, just as Erica, I want you to stand facing the wall, three feet back. Lean forward at the waist so that your hands are about three-quarters of the way up, and you are looking straight down to the middle of the space between your feet and the wall. You will count each stroke of my belt, and thank me after each. Your hands will not leave the wall, nor shall you kick. You will remain in position until I signal that your punishment. She was the sole depositor and communicated with them directly and daily. So Melody couldn't be allowed die of natural causes, because I may not learn of it in time.So I'd have to kill her.I'd had to do bad things to bad people before. I'd blown up an entire house full of Mexican drug cartelists. And, of course, Zeus had killed in his role as The Patriot Sniper. But when I came to the conclusion that I had to kill Melody Armstrong, that processing path came to a complete stop.Her last.