Ninja Soccer Moms by Jennifer Apodaca Page A

head and somehow made it stay there. A few stray wisps floated down around her face. “We want to sneak up on Gabe, hide, and see what he’s doing. How much of a plan do we need?”
    I glared at her. “What do you think the chances are of us pulling this off?”
    She grinned, practically lighting up the garage. “He’s not expecting us to be here. And don’t forget, he’s got to go back and pick up his mom. He’ll be distracted.”
    This might actually work. I hoped. “Okay, why don’t you look around downstairs, and I’ll look upstairs? All the bedrooms are upstairs, so I’d think Chad would have an office or something up there.”
    â€œSure.” Angel waved her hand to the door.
    I reached for the door handle. Chad never had a house alarm when he was married to Janie, but now that he had taken up embezzling from SCOLE, maybe he’d put in an alarm.
    But if Gabe was in there, he would have disarmed the alarm.
    It was hard to get a full breath.
    â€œSam, are you going to let Gabe have the last word?” Angel whispered behind me.
    â€œHell, no.” Squaring my shoulders, I tucked my purse back behind my hip, clutched my pepper spray, and turned the door handle.
    It wasn’t locked. Slowly, we eased open the door and went into the laundry room. The washer and dryer were on the right. Carefully we closed the door.
    We were in. No alarms blared, and so far, Gabe hadn’t caught us. I headed straight to where the laundry room turned left into a small hallway that led to a downstairs bathroom and family room.
    This was probably breaking and entering. Maybe even crime-scene tampering. But there had been no crime here. And since Janie was the ex-wife and probably inherited everything as the kids’ guardian . . . I turned off my spinning thoughts. If I had a hope in hell of outsmarting Gabe at this, I had to focus.
    A squeak overhead froze me to the tile. Angel stopped beside me. We were on the threshold of a large family room. I looked up at the ceiling.
    That squeak had to be Gabe up on the second floor. Had he heard us? I glanced at Angel.
    She gestured for me to go on. I knew she’d keep watch down here. Quickly I looked around to get my bearings. We were facing the family room. It had a big black leather couch with recliners built in, facing a huge big-screen TV. Chad had redecorated. I wondered how much that TV and couch cost. I remembered the clean but worn furniture in Janie’s mobile home. Chad still owed her money for the house and didn’t pay the kid’s health insurance premiums, but he bought new stuff for himself. What a guy.
    The kitchen was through the family room. On my left was the stairs, then the living room. Quietly, I headed for the stairs.
    Naturally they went straight up. No little turns to hide in while climbing up. I took a deep breath, tucked my can of pepper spray back in my purse, and started up the stairs while straining to listen.
    Halfway up I heard clicking. Familiar clicking. I strained to place it. It sounded like . . . Grandpa on the computer! Was Gabe on Chad’s computer? What was he looking for? Something to do with the missing soccer money? At the top of the stairs, I stopped.
    The stairs opened to a balcony on my right that overlooked the living room, filled with a pool table. I wondered where Angel was. Probably snooping through the kitchen. I went left, where I had my choice of either going left again to the master bedroom or right to the three remaining bedrooms.
    The clicking stopped.
    If Gabe walked out of any room, he’d see me. Quick, where to go? The kids had the two bedrooms past the bathroom, so I guessed Gabe was in the bedroom with the door just to the right. It used to be Janie’s sewing and craft room, but I was sure Chad had changed it. I tiptoed to the wall and quietly edged to the door. Holding my breath, I listened.
    Nothing. Maybe he wasn’t in there. There was