"How long has he been down there," Dev asked as I walked into the living room and headed directly to the coffee pot. Thankfully there was coffee already made and my favorite mug sat beside it. 

"A few days," I said with a shrug. To be honest, I have gotten a bit distracted in the past few days, worrying about gang things, and trying to assure Jax that his dad was contained and would never get near him again; the man in my basement became the least of my worries but now that everything was settled I planned on spending the next several hours down there.

Given the time apart, I was sure he would have gotten some of his fight back or at the very least would have forgotten the rules. 

"I don't see why you kept him alive," Barrett scoffed. "I would have killed him in the middle of the street and left him there."

"He doesn't deserve a simple death," I said easily as I poured the coffee. "I want him to suffer for what he's done. I don't know anything about the afterlife but if it really does exist I want his next self to flinch any time he even thinks about raising a hand to someone."

I don't wait for either of them to answer. Dev probably would have gone into lecture mode and Barrett would have offered to come help but I wanted this bastard all to myself. 

I opened the door to the basement with much more force than I needed to but I loved seeing him flinch from the sound before a harsh glare was pointed in my direction. 

"Good morning, Richard," I called as I skipped down the stairs. "I know you've probably been missing me. I apologize for leaving and not coming back but that just means we get to make up for lost time now."

"Fuck off," he scoffed and I smiled. Good. This is what I wanted. 

"Oh, don't be like that," I teased as I walked over to the opposite wall. I scanned it a few times before stopping a whip covered in needles. I hummed as I took it off the wall and walked to the center of the room, where a table was there waiting for me. I placed the whip there before grabbing the chain hanging from the ceiling and pulling it down the a better height. 

When I turned back to the wall, Richard was staring at me intently, his back pressed as far into the wall as he could go. 

"Don't try running away now," I said as I inched closer to the wall. I didn't give him the chance to struggle before my hand gripped the chain connected to the spiked collar and pulled harshly to get him to settle down. "Calm down," I scoffed. "This isn't even that hard part." Getting the collar unlocked from the wall had taken a bit more effort than I would have wanted but I did love knowing the fight wasn't completely beaten out of him already.

I dragged him by the collar to the chain hanging from the ceiling. The clip of the chain clasped onto the loop of the collar and I hummed at how Richard hard to strain to keep the spikes from touching his skin. 

I gave the chain a quick snap and Richard hissed, following the pain to try and relieve it before I walked to the crank in the corner. 

I turned the crank gear by gear, watching as Richard had to stand on his tiptoes to keep the spikes from stabbing him. 

"Does that feel comfortable," I asked as I locked the crank in place before coming to stand in front of him again. 

"How about we reverse the roles here and we'll see how comfortable you find it," he scoffed. I hummed before picking up the whip. 

"Do you want to be hit with this," I asked as I stood in front of him, showing off the whip in my hand and the needles sticking out of the multiple tethers. 

"No," he scoffed, backing up just far enough before the collar around his neck could cause him any pain. "Are you fucking insane?" 

"Yes," I said with a smile. "But I think you're forgetting the rules," I teased as I ran the whip across his skin just hard enough to leave scratches. He flinched away from the light touch but the second he tried to back away the spikes that lined the collar pierced his skin and he was forced to return to the place I put him. "What are the only words I want to hear you say?"

"I don't give a fuck about your stupid ass rules," he spat. "Get me out of here. Take me to jail if you want, I won't bother Jaxon again, but just let me leave."

"Those aren't the words you're meant to say," I scolded lightly, brushing the whip against his skin again. "Do you want to try that again or are you going to make this more fun for me?"

"Go to hell," he scoffed. He had only been standing on his toes for a few minutes but his balance was starting to sway as his body shook with the effort to not move. 

I hummed and walked around to his back. He moved to keep me in his line of sight but I kept walking around him. Spinning in circles quickly made his head spin. His balance was lost and I watched as he tripped, falling flat on his feet and causing the collar to scratched from the base of his neck up to the start of his jaw. He hissed at the pain and quickly went to stand on his toes again. 

"That hurt didn't it," I teased as I continued to walk around him. "How about this time you just stand there? Or don't, it won't affect me either way." I watched with disgust as he spit at my feet, thankfully missing by a few inches. 

I was quickly getting annoyed with this. I wanted him to scream and fight but the spit was just getting to be too much. My hand lifted and the way he screamed as the needles made contact with his stomach was like music to my ears. He struggled against the spikes around his neck as another hit was placed on his chest. 

He was already bleeding from the needles and the tethers of the whip were turning his skin a nice shade of red. Blood ran down his body slowly as he struggled, starting at his neck before rolling down and collecting with the stream on his chest. They mixed together and rolled down before absorbing into the waistband of his jeans. If I kept at this long enough the jeans would turn into a blackish red and part of me was tempted to change the color all in one day but I knew that would likely bring him too close to death so I put that thought aside for now. 

"Do you see now why I was trying to get to your back now," I teased as I walked around him. "I was going to try and ease you into this like a good person but you were just being too stubborn. Maybe one day you will listen to me. You have more protective muscle on your back and there are fewer nerve endings there," I explained I was bought the wipe down on his back. He screamed at the pain but fought to stand still against the chain. "Are you ready to remember the rules yet?" 

He only groaned at the pain still ripping through his body. Another hit landed on his back. 

"Answer me when I speak to you. Are you ready to remember the rules?"

"You're a fucking bastard," he scoffed. I hummed as I walked around to face his chest again. The blood on his stomach and chest was already mostly dried, and the pinpricks of the needles were too small to bleed for too long, this tool was mostly used for the added pain but there was still a bit falling from his neck.

Richard opened his mouth to say something else but I didn't give him a chance to. I brought the whip up and aimed it at his face. The scream that ripped through his body was louder than any other he had made yet. I smiled at the sound and watched as he struggled against the collar, his hands coming up to cup his face and clot the tiny holes left his face. Without giving him a chance to recover, I slapped the whip against his stomach again and again until he removed his hands from his face to guard the rest of his skin. 

I let him for a brief moment purely so I could admire the blood coating his face along with the red lines striping his face. A scratch covered his right eye, mirroring the one on my face and I prayed it scarred even if he wouldn't have to live with it for long like I did. Tears were gathered in his eyes but I couldn't tell if that was from fear or from the irritation the whip did to his eye. The tears mixed with his blood as they rolled down his body and I hoped more of those would come from this. 

I picked up the whip again and this time I didn't stop after only a few hits. I started at his face again, forcing another scream out of his lungs before switching back to his stomach, to his chest, his sides, turning to hit his back and circling back to his face. His hands went back to cover his eyes but my hit was already in motion and the whip slapped against the skin there, easily ripping the delicate skin but he didn't do anything other than groan slightly at the pain. 

"Move your hands," I told him as I cracked the whip behind me, loving the way blood fell off of it and collected onto the floor. Richard shook his head, still hidden behind his fingers. "Last chance, move your hands." I barely gave him a second to contemplate following orders before I aimed the whip at his dick. He still had his jeans on, mostly because I didn't want to see what could be hiding under there, but the strength of the hit alone was enough to make him crumble. 

His knees buckled and my eyes were glued to the collar on his neck. As he fell to cup his junk, the collar tightened and scratched up his neck again, leaving behind fresh scratches. His whole neck had turned a lovely shade of red and was absolutely soaking the blue material of the collar, turning it more purple and red. He struggled at the lack of air but the pain in his dick seemed to be more important. He cupped his hands there, hanging lifelessly from the chain until he almost passed out.

As he pushed himself back up and took a deep breath of fresh air I slapped the whip across his face again. He cursed and thought about backing away but the irritation in his neck had him second-guessing and he simply went back to holding his face. 

"Move your hands," I teased as I placed a light hit on his crotch, just as a reminder of the pain I could cause if he decided to not listen again. He whined at the hit and reluctantly moved his hands. "Oh, look at you! Have you decided to listen again," I asked as placed another hit to his face. He screamed his throat raw as one of the needles landed in the corner of his eyes, narrowly missing the white of his eye. Blood poured from the tiny prick and fell into his eye. 

His hands fly up to wipe the blood away and hold the pressure there. I allowed him a second to breathe through the pain for a moment as I looked at what my work had done to him. He was a panting, sobbing, mess with blood, sweat, and tears covering every inch of his body. I thought back to the smart mouth and attitude he had with me when I walked down here and loved that I was able to resort him to this in only a matter of minutes. 

"Now, what were the words I was looking for earlier? Do you remember them or should I keep going?" He ground his teeth at another trick question. 

"Yes, Jem," he spat. I lightly slapped his stomach just to watch him flinch away.

"Oh good, you do remember. I'm so glad we were able to fix that. Now, let's think back. How many times did you break that rule? I think I counted 9 times but I could be wrong so how about we go ahead and round that up to 10 just to make sure?"

"Yes, Jem," he squeezed out, the anger in his voice was clear as day and I smiled knowing I had broken him twice in a row. 

"Such a good bitch," I teased as I looked his body and up and down, trying to figure out the best place to hit on this punishment. My eyes landed on his crotch and I remembered the sweet scream he let out, the way he dropped like a sack of rocks and didn't get up for a long time after that. "Here's what's going to happen, I'm going to take this whip and I'm going to hit you with it 10 times. If you try to cover the place I'm hitting, I will start over. I don't care if we're at hit one or at 9, we will start over. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Jem," he scoffed, his jaw clenched in anger and that hate burning brightly in his eyes. It made me wonder if it would shine brighter after this punishment or if this was when he would turn into a sobbing baby.