It’s a heady tale of board room deliberations, late-night scheming, wild stock market moves and ambushing marauders. Stay tuned for the next plot twist.

Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd., the buyout firm of financier Guy Hands, along with partners Wellcome Trust Ltd. and HBOS Plc, sweetened their proposal to buy U.K. drugstore company Alliance Boots Plc to $22.30 a share in cash, or 1,115 pence a share, topping KKR’s offer of 1,090 pence a share.

Terra Firma, which made the announcement today in a Regulatory News Service statement, approached Nottingham, England- based Alliance Boots on April 17 about a possible bid worth slightly less. The pharmacy operator’s board today accepted the offer from KKR and Italian billionaire Stefano Pessina – but that was before its stock price shot through the offer level today and Terra Firma moved in with its latest bid.

According to The Financial Times, though KKR and Pessina have won the backing of the Alliance Boots board, it seems to have been a close-run, up all night at the offices of Slaughter & May sort of thing. The Hands team said a request had been made to conduct “limited” due diligence on Boots.

To read more about this story, go to [http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aVAxsWncdoNg&refer=home]

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