The Debt of Maximillian

Max (Travis Lee Eller) has a good job, a nice house, loving wife (Kate Prendergast) and adorable daughter (Mikiko Flynn), so you might think everything's great on his end - but he has a tiny problem, and that's betting on football. And what makes this problem more than a trifle is that he's just not very good at it and is constantly losing money. In fact he's so deeply in debt that he's about to lose his house, and he owes his bookie Charlie (Wali Habib) quite a bit of money, too. So he tries to borrow money from everywhere he can, but once he's evened the score with Charlie, he goes right and places another bet instead of paying off the mortgage on his house - and that's despite even Charlie telling him to get a grip on his life. The only one who really sticks with Max is his younger brother Kyle (Mark Valeriano), but Kyle has got problems of his own, among them his girlfriend Nena (Angelica Briones), a recovering heroin addict. Another being that he's doing drug deliveries for the mob, but has the habit of embezzling some of the money he gets for a better future for him and Nena somewhere else. But now it seems the mob has grown wise on him, and in his desperation, he pretty much forces all the money, a small fortune, on Max - who of course can't withstand the temptation and places a pretty big bet with Charlie ... and wouldn't you know it, he wins for a change. Thing is, since he placed the bet, Charlie has "disappeared", and the thugs who have been taking over are not people to take over his debts as well and pay out Max. By now though, Kyle really has to skip town and relies on Max returning the money - which means Max, if he doesn't want to see his brother killed, has to get what's "rightfully his", even if at gunpoint ... and since when was that ever a good idea? Written by Mike Haberfelner