Free Gnarly New Year (Corsario Cove Cozy Mystery #2) by Anna Celeste Burke Page B

and almost paralyzed by our circumstances. Brien had just the opposite reaction. He was buzzing. That new jolt of chocolate and caffeine had pushed him into hyper-drive. Brien sat down and tried to watch surf videos on his phone. Two minutes later, my hunky surfer dude popped up and headed back inside to our suite. In no time, he returned with a new suggestion about what to do next. 
    “The coffee and donuts have me wired. All the grievous things going on around us, too. We must have caught Jessica’s calamity magnetism. You want to go to the gym and work out with me, Gidget?” Those sentences spewed forth at a startling speed, running together without a pause or a breath in between them.
    “Oh, I’d like to work out with you, all right, Moondoggie. Too bad we’re stuck babysitting.”
    “This New Year’s Eve sucks, so far, doesn’t it?”
    "Having a drunken, snarky surfer dude in a Santa suit fall on our floor at the crack of dawn was bad. Listening to his sad story while our detective friend with nervous tics slid closer and closer toward his dark side was worse. A fire and two dead bodies in one day, the worst. Not what I had in mind as a way to say goodbye to the old year.”
    Sucks, was putting it mildly , I thought. I stopped before uttering those words aloud, trying to halt my plunge into despair. Instead, I stood and took a couple of steps toward Brien. I stood on my tiptoes and planted a big kiss on Brien's luscious lips.
    “Mick won’t be here much longer. Mitchum is going to pick him up and take him into protective custody, and then you can make it up to me.”
    “That’s a promise!” Brien lifted me up off the ground and twirled me around. My head was still spinning when he put me back down, smothering me with kisses. With a knock on the door, new hope sprang into my heart.
    “Ooh, Brien, maybe that’s Mick’s new babysitters.” Brien wasn’t convinced and shifted into hypervigilant mode. The fire-and two-dead-bodies part of our eventful New Year’s Eve had not been lost on him, either. He pressed a finger to those dreamy lips I had been smooching, then quietly made his way to the door and peered through the peephole. I saw a wave of relief flow over him as all his tensed muscles relaxed.
    “It’s Alex.” Still being cautious, Brien opened the door but left the security chain on it. “Hey, Alex, what’s up?”
    “I may know where that bag is—both bags. I got Kim's message.” He looked over his shoulder as if concerned that someone might overhear him.
    “Wait, I’ll let you in.” Brien closed the door, removed the security chain, and then reopened it. Alex stepped into the room and Brien shut the door behind him.
    “I’ve been asking around, and one of the women in housekeeping thinks she might have picked it up and tossed it in with the other laundry on her cart. A black cloth bag, kind of like our Santas carry around here. She remembers it because it was wet, stinky, and lying on the floor near one of the elevators. Housekeeping was in here already today, too. The room number was posted as one that had been cleaned. Whoever cleaned it would have had to swipe a card to get in, so there's probably a record of the time they entered the room if it's important to know.”
    “It could be. Let's take care of the bag search for now. How do we find it?” I asked.
    “Find what?” We all turned to see Mick peering in at us from the veranda through the screen door. Still half asleep, he wasn't all that careful about his bathrobe.
    “Mick, shut the robe, Dude. We’ve seen more than enough of you for one day.” I glanced at Brien, then at Alex, who had a smirk on his face. Here we go again , I thought. Before I could say a word to clarify matters, Alex spoke.
    “I know, I know, it’s not what it looks like!”
    “Yeah, and it’s none of your business as long as nobody’s hurt, right? So where can we find that bag—both bags?”
    “In the laundry room down in the basement. You